Us Free Write

Unit 1 Free Write

In “A People’s History of the Unite States,” Howard Zinn goes in depth on different aspects of the American lifestyle. Focusing solely on chapters one and four, the two show how North America had evolved from an agricultural nation to a colonial nation to an independent country. It was surprising to read about how advanced the Native Americans were during the pre-Columbian era. They not only obtained agricultural technology far superior to the Europeans, but women also had a strong role in daily life, which was unheard of to the Old World citizens. Later in American history, specifically during the 1760s and 1770s, the lower class in the British colonies was beginning to rebel. This was separate from the rebellion from their mother country of Britain, but it is rarely talked about so it was interesting to read and learn about. Also, it was easy to compare the women of the Indian society and the women of the colonial society and I found it to be intriguing how much they differed despite the significant time periods in history. Both chapters were informational, and gave a history a somewhat deeper meaning with how much was going in those two time periods of change.

Columbus and his crew of men first encountered the Arawak tribe when they came ashore the Caribbean Islands, thinking they were in India. Zinn wrote that when they first arrived, “the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts.” (1) This quote showed that the Indians were quite hospital, which is surprising. Based on history, they may come off a bit hostile, but apparently not. Something else that was surprising about the Arawak Indians was that they “had a developed agriculture of corn, yams, cassava. They could spin and weave… they wore tiny gold ornaments in their ears.” (3) Obviously the Indians of Native America were able to create lives to themselves without the help of Europeans, and in some ways they could be considered more advanced than the explorers that...