Treatment of Native Americans and Slaves

Native Americans and African Americans composed the largest two groups of non-English peoples living in British America. Like African Americans, whom were viewed as nothing more than slave labor, Native Americans were also seen as an inferior species. English colonists' relations with the two groups had its ups and downs throughout American history. Many similarities exist between the treatment of Native Americans in both the North and the South; however, a multitude of differences in the treatment of American Americans separated the two sides of the country.

When colonization in North America began, relations between settlers and natives were rather pleasant. Document B states that one Native American man, Squanto, served as an interpreter for Englishmen, and "helped them to set corn, to fish and showed them directions to the unknown places that became profitable" (Bradford). But relations began to waste away as huge numbers of natives contracted disease from the settlers. Human pathogens carried across the Atlantic Ocean by the Europeans infected a native population that had not developed biological resistance to diseases common in the Eastern Hemisphere. The diseases that were fatal for Indians caused massive reduction of indigenous population. According to the document D, natives residing in the colony of Maryland were essentially wiped out by smallpox (Winthrop). Ravaging disease, incessant English incursion upon their lands, and the settlers' superior mentality culminated into many Native American attacks. Document C is a first-hand account of the fatal Jamestown Massacre, which occurred on March 22, 1622. During this ferocious slaughter, Algonquian Indians attacked English colonists at Jamestown murdered 347 settlers, and wounded many in an unexpected assault. Provoked by English encroachment onto their native lands and superior mentality of the whites, the attack had major implications on the future relations between Indians and the Englishmen. After the Jamestown Massacre, the Whites now considered that, because of the "treacherous violence of the savages ... we ... may now by right of war, and law of nations, invade the country, and destroy them who sought to destroy us" (Waterhouse). Because of the natives' retaliation of English oppression, conflict between the two sides became inevitable. Another conflict between the Native Americans and the colonists, which was entitled Philip's War, began in the context of struggles over trade land and sovereignty. In document G, the causes and consequences of Indians' attack are enumerated. According to the historical data, the relations between the Wampanoag tribe and the English colonists had deteriorated because of several reasons, but the immediate cause of war was the death of John Sassamon, a Christian Indian and interpreter. Plymouth judges tried and convicted three Wampanoag Indians for his death and hanged them, promoting the tribe's