George Fitzhugh

This week, my favorite part of class had to be the class discussion on George Fitzhugh's piece. I really liked how we tried to to look at slavery as an economic factor rather than about black or white. While I am certainly not advocating slavery in any way I felt that Fitzhugh made some very valid points. He brought up valid points, unlike those views of Thomas Jefferson on how the south flourished with the use of slaves. At least Fitzhugh used logical thoughts, while Jefferson just believed that the Africans and native Americans were smelly and just biologically different. Plus, the type of economy just wouldn't have been possible without someone doing the dirty work. If you think about it, the south still doesn't flourish the way it did back in those old days.

Someone pointed it out in class that since slavery was made illegal we just pushed it off to different countries. I believe that pretty much everyone in America would say that slavery is wrong...however, out of those people look down and see how many are wearing Nike sneakers (and I'm guilty of this) that were produced in a sweatshop, I would consider that a form of slavery.

Fitzhugh, in my opinion tried to make the point that they didn't enslave the Africans because they were black, and that the motives weren't racist ones- they enslaved them because the lower class white people of the south were educated well enough to know that they couldn't be forced to work in fields with no pay. Clearly, the Africans were exploited...but it was necessary.

John Smith

While the piece "A Description of New England" was quite confusing on the surface, the class discussion helped me gain alot of insight. The old language used was difficult to follow, and I felt that the account was quite dry. However, after looking more deeply into exactly what John Smith was trying to say it became a little more understandable. John Smith wanted more Englanders to come to the new lands and use the earth for their gain. It just goes to show how ironic John Smith's stance on others coming to Virgina. The whole reason the English left was because they felt held down by the rule of the King, John Smith felt that the Native American's were savages that needed to share his values and religion. He was trying to impose his morals on a group of people that were surving just fine in their way of living. He was doing the same exact thing that he fled. Also, it showed how he used a sort of propaganda. John Smith tried to will people to come to Virginia by bragging about the rich natural resources that were prevelant. While this is true, his account is majorly exaggerated.

Reading John Smith's other account where he refers to himself in the 3rd person was also an eye opener. I felt that anything John Smith said in that in that account was practically unreliable. The fact that he was talking about himself in teh 3rd person shows that he was trying to make a name for himself. John Smith was hoping to be a legend.

I also liked how we watched a clip from the Disney movie Pocohantas. It just showed how everything gets turned around and made to be so nice and fluffy. Really, John Smith was an old man, and Pocohantas was a teen age girl. I'm sure they were not in love, and in actuallity she never even marries John Smith. Strange.