Native American History, Topic 2: Cultures Collide and Jean de Brébeuf s Advice to Jesuit Missionaries in New France (1637)

Transcription

1 Background: In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Spanish, French, and English explorers, missionaries, and soldiers collided with native peoples in the Americas. The Columbian Exchange, as historian Alfred Crosby called the biological byproduct of the collisions, sent smallpox, measles, plague, typhus, influenza, yellow fever, diphtheria, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, mules, black rats, honeybees, cockroaches, wheat, sugar, barley, coffee, rice, and dandelion to the New World and syphilis, turkeys, maize, beans, peanut, potato, sweet potato, manioc, squash, papaya, guava, tomato, avocado, pineapple, chili pepper, cocoa, apples, peaches, pears, and plums to the Old World. Virgin soil epidemics, which were the result of European germs attacking Indians who had no acquired immunity to the new diseases, decimated percent of many native populations and averaged losses of 74 percent in all Indian populations of North America between 1650 and 1800 and 89 percent in the hemisphere as a whole between 1492 and Against such a demographically depleted adversary, Europeans easily grabbed control of the hemisphere. Missions for gold and God motivated colonization efforts in New Spain. Spanish law required Indians to acknowledge the [Roman Catholic] Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world, the Pope as high priest, and Spain s king and queen as their new lords. If natives agreed, then the Spaniards would receive [them] in all love and charity, leave them free without servitude, and not compel [them] to turn Christians. If natives refused, the Requerimiento promised that with the help of God, we shall forcibly enter into your country and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their Highnesses; we shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them. With that justification for conquest in hand, and a lust for legendary American stores of gold in heart, Hernando Cortés overwhelmed the Aztec Empire in Mexico in 1521, Francisco Pizarro conquered the Incan Empire in Peru by 1538, and Hernando de Soto ravaged most of the powerful chiefdoms that dotted the Southeast between 1538 and The conquistadors brutal efforts were rewarded handsomely. Between 1500 and 1800, the mines of New Spain yielded more than ten times as much gold and silver as the rest of the world s mines combined, which made Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. Catholic missions kept pace with Spanish mines, and their primary purpose was to gain native converts. Priests and friars risked life and limb to spread the Catholic gospel throughout South and Central America, Mexico, and the South and Southwest of the present United States. Unlike the Spanish, the French in northeastern North America came to stay and created successful alliances with native peoples. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded New France s first permanent settlement at Quebec. Few French Catholics immigrated there, and French Protestants were excluded, but, through Champlain s visionary leadership, the French formed close, direct ties with native tribes, which created an empire based on the fur trade. Champlain sent young traders into Indian villages to learn native cultures and languages, made alliances

2 with local tribes (against the Iroquois, who held the central role in the English fur trade), encouraged French Jesuit missionaries to establish close contact with natives in their own villages, and sent coureurs de bois French fur traders and trappers who acted as middle-men in Franco-Indian trade deep into the North American interior to develop extensive trading partnerships with the powerful Algonquian and Huron, who controlled the pelt market. These French lived among the Indians, and many took native brides, which led to the lucrative business and peaceful relations that opened other opportunities for the French in the New World, including agricultural estates along the St. Lawrence River, the establishment of trade and military centers at Quebec and Montreal (as well as important fur trading posts at Detroit and St. Louis), and the forging of a powerful military alliance with the Algonquian. The Franco-Indian partnerships that sustained French success in the New World were based on diplomacy, tact, and respect for native cultures, which created what historian Richard White has called a middle ground of coexistence and cooperation that provided a stark contrast to Spanish brutality and subjugation. All of these factors allowed the French, who were far less numerous than the English, to compete with the robust populations of their rivals along the Atlantic seaboard for control of the continent. The English brought the greatest amount of European settlers to the New World and demanded the surrender of native lands to sustain the spread of English civilization. In Virginia, English settlers captured and murdered Opechancanough in 1644 in order to secure Powhatan land for themselves. In 1676, following years of Virginians breaking treaty agreements by settling on tribal lands, Nathaniel Bacon defied Governor William Berkeley s orders by leading an army of colonists against local tribes, one of which had retaliated against the incursions by raiding a western plantation. Bacon s Rebellion became a full-scale insurrection against Virginia s colonial government and ended with Berkeley establishing several small reservations, the first within the bounds of the present-day United States, to protect native populations and English expansion. In New England, following a treaty of peace in 1621 between the Wampanoag and the Pilgrims, English desires for tribal land led to the annihilation of the Pequot of southern Connecticut during the Pequot War of 1637, in which the English torched a palisaded Pequot stronghold, killing six hundred, and then sold the survivors into slavery. Incessant English encroachments on Indian lands led Wampanoag King Philip (Metacom) to raid Massachusetts towns in 1675 and 1676 in what may have been the bloodiest conflict, in proportion to population, in American history: King Philip s War. King Philip s defeat crushed native power and independence in southern New England and paved the way for Anglo-American domination of the region. Meanwhile, Puritan missionaries like John Eliot gathered natives into praying towns to convert them to Christianity and assimilate them into English culture, and Eliot even translated the Bible into Algonquian for his congregations. And the tides of European colonists continued to crash over the beaches of the New World, filling every crevice of native land.

3 Questions to Consider as You Read: How does Brébeuf view the Huron? How do you know? What advice does Brébeuf give to his fellow Jesuit missionaries in New France? Do you think that Brébeuf s advice helped or hurt missionary work in New France? Explain. Research: Jean de Brébeuf s Advice to Jesuit Missionaries in The Jesuit Relations (1637) As you read, don t forget to mark and annotate main ideas, key terms, confusing concepts, unknown vocabulary, cause/effect relationships, examples, etc. Instructions for the Fathers of Our Society Who Shall Be Sent to the Hurons [in New France] The Fathers and Brethren whom God shall call to the Holy Mission of the Hurons ought to exercise careful foresight in regard to all the hardships, annoyances, and perils that must be encountered in making this journey, in order to be prepared betimes for all emergencies that may arise. You must have sincere affection for the Savages, looking upon them as ransomed by the blood of the son of God, and as our brethren, with whom we are to pass the rest of our lives. To conciliate the Savages, you must be careful never to make them wait for you in embarking. You must provide yourself with a tinder box or with a burning mirror, or with both, to furnish them fire in the daytime to light their pipes, and in the evening when they have to encamp; these little services win their hearts. You should try to eat their sagamité or salmagundi in the way they prepare it, although it may be dirty, half-cooked, and very tasteless. As to the other numerous things which may be unpleasant, they must be endured for the love of God, without saying anything or appearing to notice them. It is well at first to take everything they offer, although you may not be able to eat it all; for, when one becomes somewhat accustomed to it, there is not too much. You must try and eat at daybreak unless you can take your meal with you in the canoe; for the day is very long, if you have to pass it without eating. The Barbarians eat only at Sunrise and Sunset, when they are on their journeys. You must be prompt in embarking and disembarking; and tuck up your gowns so that they will not get wet, and so that you will not carry either water or sand into the canoe. To be properly dressed, you must have your feet and legs bare; while crossing the rapids, you can wear your shoes, and, in the long portages, even your leggings. You must so conduct yourself as not to be at all troublesome to even one of these Barbarians. It is not well to ask many questions, nor should you yield to your desire to learn the language and to make observations on the way; this may be carried too far. You must relieve those in your canoe of this annoyance, especially as you cannot profit much by it during the work. Silence is a good equipment at such a time. You must bear with their imperfections without saying a word, yes, even without seeming to notice them. Even if it be necessary to criticise anything, it must be done modestly, and with words and signs which evince love and

4 not aversion. In short, you must try to be, and to appear, always cheerful. Each one should be provided with half a gross of awls, two or three dozen little knives called jambettes [pocketknives], a hundred fishhooks, with some beads of plain and colored glass, with which to buy fish or other articles when the tribes meet each other, so as to feast the Savages; and it would be well to say to them in the beginning, Here is something with which to buy fish. Each one will try, at the portages, to carry some little thing, according to his strength; however little one carries, it greatly pleases the Savages, if it be only a kettle. You must not be ceremonious with the Savages, but accept the comforts they offer you, such as a good place in the cabin. The greatest conveniences are attended with very great inconvenience, and these ceremonies offend them. Be careful not to annoy any one in the canoe with your hat; it would be better to take your nightcap. There is no impropriety among the Savages. Do not undertake anything unless you desire to continue it; for example, do not begin to paddle unless you are inclined to continue paddling. Take from the start the place in the canoe that you wish to keep; do not lend them your garments, unless you are willing to surrender them during the whole journey. It is easier to refuse at first than to ask them back, to change, or to desist afterwards. Finally, understand that the Savages will retain the same opinion of you in their own country that they will have formed on the way; and one who has passed for an irritable and troublesome person will have considerable difficulty afterwards in removing this opinion. You have to do not only with those of your own canoe, but also (if it must be so stated) with all those of the country; you meet some to-day and others to-morrow, who do not fail to inquire, from those who brought you, what sort of man you are. It is almost incredible, how they observe and remember even to the slightest fault. When you meet Savages on the way, as you cannot yet greet them with kind words, at least show them a cheerful face, and thus prove that you endure gayly the fatigues of the voyage. You will thus have put to good use the hardships of the way, and have already advanced considerably in gaining the affection of the Savages. This is a lesson which is easy enough to learn, but very difficult to put into practice; for, leaving a highly civilized community, you fall into the hands of barbarous people who care but little for your Philosophy or your Theology. All the fine qualities which might make you loved and respected in France are like pearls trampled under the feet of swine, or rather of mules, which utterly despise you when they see that you are not as good pack animals as they are. If you could go naked, and carry the load of a horse upon your back, as they do, then you would be wise according to their doctrine, and would be recognized as a great man, otherwise not. Jesus Christ is our true greatness; it is he alone and his cross that should be sought in running after these people, for, if you strive for anything else, you will find naught but bodily and spiritual affliction. But having found Jesus Christ in his cross, you have found the roses in the thorns, sweetness in bitterness, all in nothing. 1 1 SOURCE: Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed. and trans. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. 12. Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Company, 1898.

5 Notebook Questions: Reason and Record How does Brébeuf view the Huron? How do you know? What advice does Brébeuf give to his fellow Jesuit missionaries in New France? Do you think that Brébeuf s advice helped or hurt missionary work in New France? Explain. Notebook Questions: Relate and Record How does the document relate to FACE Principle #6: How the Seed of Local Self- Government Is Planted: Christian self-government begins with salvation and education in God's law and love and flows to governing oneself, one's home, one's church and one's community? How does the document relate to 1 Nephi 12:20-23, 13:11-14, and 13:38?

6 Record Activity: Multiple Choice Comprehension Check 1. Background: Which of the following are true about the Columbian Exchange? a. It occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when Spanish, French, and English explorers, missionaries, and soldiers collided with native peoples in the Americas. b. It was the biological byproduct of the collisions. c. It sent smallpox, measles, plague, typhus, influenza, yellow fever, diphtheria, horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys, mules, black rats, honeybees, cockroaches, wheat, sugar, barley, coffee, rice, and dandelion to the New World (from the Old World). d. It sent syphilis, turkeys, maize, beans, peanut, potato, sweet potato, manioc, squash, papaya, guava, tomato, avocado, pineapple, chili pepper, cocoa, apples, peaches, pears, and plums to the Old World (from the New World). e. It created virgin soil epidemics, which were the result of European germs attacking Indians who had no acquired immunity to the new diseases. These epidemics decimated percent of many native populations and averaged losses of 74 percent in all Indian populations of North America between 1650 and 1800 and 89 percent in the hemisphere as a whole between 1492 and f. Due to its demographic depletion of native peoples in the Americas, it easily allowed Europeans to grab control of the hemisphere. g. all of the above but one h. all of the above but two i. all of the above 2. Background: Which one answer correctly matches each of the pairs? a. New Spain: missions for gold and God, Cortés and Pizarro, Requerimiento, brutality; New France: smaller settlements (fur trading posts) and successful alliances, Champlain and Jesuits, coureurs de bois, cooperation; English colonies: larger settlements and widespread incursions into native lands, Bacon s Rebellion and the Pequot War, praying towns, annexation b. New Spain: smaller settlements (fur trading posts) and successful alliances, Bacon s Rebellion and the Pequot War, coureurs de bois, cooperation; New France: missions for gold and God, Champlain and Jesuits, Requerimiento, annexation; English colonies: larger settlements and widespread incursions into native lands, Cortés and Pizarro, praying towns, brutality c. New Spain: larger settlements and widespread incursions into native lands, Cortés and Pizarro, Requerimiento, annexation; New France: smaller settlements (fur trading posts) and successful alliances, Bacon s Rebellion and the Pequot

7 War, praying towns, brutality; English colonies: missions for gold and God, Champlain and Jesuits, coureurs de bois, cooperation d. New Spain: larger settlements and widespread incursions into native lands, Bacon s Rebellion and the Pequot War, coureurs de bois, annexation; New France: missions for gold and God, Cortés and Pizarro, praying towns, cooperation; English colonies: smaller settlements (fur trading posts) and successful alliances, Champlain and Jesuits, Requerimiento, brutality 3. Source: Which one of the following does Brébeuf not give as advice to his fellow Jesuits in New France? a. You must have sincere affection for the Savages, looking upon them as ransomed by the blood of the son of God, and as our brethren, with whom we are to pass the rest of our lives. b. Little services win their hearts. c. You should try to eat their [food] in the way they prepare it, although it may be dirty, half-cooked, and very tasteless. d. You must so conduct yourself as not to be at all troublesome to even one of these Barbarians. e. You must bear with their imperfections without saying a word, yes, even without seeming to notice them. f. In short, you must try to be, and to appear, always cheerful. g. First impressions do not matter much to the Barbarians. Even if you are irritable or troublesome at first, they may still warm to your personality later.