LITR 4326 Early American Literature Research Posts 2016 (research post assignment) Research Post 1

Haley Stilwell

3/4/2016

Where’s the Morality in That?

The idea of mass fear controlling a population and being used to push the political agenda is a terrifying and overwhelming thought. Any decision made out of fear is one that certainly is not made by a clear and level mind. While discussing research topics in class, I became very curious to know what exactly moral hysteria or panic is and could it be related to the interactions with Native Americans in early American settlement. Through my research I sought out to find a clear and concise definition of moral hysteria in order to gain a deeper understanding of the texts we discuss in class. Is it a tool used to eliminate social and cultural threats, or is it genuinely a deep rooted fear that clouds an entire group’s moral interactions with one another?

          I had quite a difficult time finding an accurate definition for moral hysteria, but by using the term moral panic, I was able to find an abundance of information. Oxford English Dictionary defines moral panic as: 

an instance of public anxiety or alarm in response to a problem regarded as threatening the moral standards of society (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/moral-panic?q=moral+panic).

Moral panic is not experienced by a single person, but instead by the “public”. This indicates that the fear is widespread. In Columbus’s Letters, Columbus sparks an initial fear towards the Native Americans by writing, “Alone in my trouble, sick, in daily expectation of death, and encompassed about by a million savages, full of cruelty, and our foes, and so separated from the Blessed Sacraments of Holy Church, my soul will be forgotten if it here leaves my body. Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth and justice.” (2.13). By describing the Native Americans as “savages,” “cruel,” and “foes,” he creates a negative connotation with Native Americans as a whole. He also creates a threat to the Christian faith when he writes that they are “separated” from Christianity. The separation is so great, that he believes “his soul will be forgotten” if he dies among the presence of the Native Americans. The Native Americans have now become a barricade between Christians and their eternal salvation.

          The belief of Native Americans' savagery remains present to Early American travelers many years following Columbus’s expedition. Scholar Karen Ordahl Kupperman studied the writers of travelers who followed after Columbus and while she found that many of the travelers had genuinely kind things to say in regards to the Native Americans, “Many writers directly contradicted themselves. Richard Whitbourne, for instance, believed Indians were thieves, but elsewhere remarked that returning fishing fleets found all of their equipment just as they left it” (Kupperman 264). These contradictions show the writers to be unreliable in their recollection of events and possibly in the description of the Native Americans’ character. Kupperman also notes that some of the men writing about the hostile and “brutish” descriptions of Native Americans, “had never been to America” (265).  Similarly, Alfred A. Cave writes that Early American traveler, Richard Hakluyt, recounted tales of the Native Americans “were under the thraldom of the devil, worshipped the infernal one, and practiced witchcraft” (Cave 6).  Kristina Bross goes as far as saying, “To observant Puritans, the death of an Indian was always a sign from God” (Bross 325). These writings incited fear within the Early American settlers as they believed Native Americans were threats to their lives, both physical and eternal.

          Through my research, I have found that these unreliable writings were used to evoke fear within the settlers in regards to Native Americans. The inconsistency of the descriptions allow the readers to believe that the travelers were attempting to sway the settlers through fear. By inciting fear, they are also inciting a call to action. The need to eradicate the threats to the settlers lives would result in the massacres of many Native Americans, thus removing any barricades for further American exploration and colonization.

Works Cited

Bross, Kristina. "Dying Saints, Vanishing Savages: "Dying Indian Speeches" in Colonial New England Literature." Early American Literature 36.3 (2001): 325-52. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.

Cave, Alfred A. "Richard Hakluyt's Savages: The Influence of 16th Century Travel Narratives on English Indian Policy in North America." International Social Science Review 60.1 (1985): 3-24. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.

"moral panic, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, December 2015. Web. 1 March 2016.

Ordahl Kupperman, Karen. "English Perceptions of Treachery, 1583-1640: The Case of the American 'Savages'." The Historical Journal 20.2 (1977): 263-87. JSTOR. Web. 2 Mar. 2016.