Saturday, October 22, 2011

Charter of Georgia: 1732

"Whereas we are credibly informed, that many of our poor subjects are, through misfortunes and want of employment, reduced to great necessity, insomuch as by their labor they are not able to provide a maintenancefor themselves and families; and if they had means to defray their charges of passage, and other expences, incident to new settlements, they would be glad to settle in any of our provinces in America where by cultivating the lands, at present waste and desolate, they might not only gain a comfortable subsistence for themselves and families, but also strengthen our colonies and increase the trade, navigation and wealth of these our realms. And whereas our provinces in North America, have been frequently ravaged by Indian enemies, more especially that of South-Carolina, which in the late War, by the neighboring savages, was laid waste with fire and sword and great numbers of English inhabitants, miserably massacred, and our loving subjects who now inhabit them, by reason of the smallness of their numbers, will in case of a new war, be exposed to the late calamities; inasmuch as their whole southern frontier continueth unsettled, and lieth open to the said savages."

They talk of the advantages of their new life in America and the misfortunates of those they left at home who are unable to prosper as they now have the availability to. They speak negatively of the Natives describing “Indian enemies” whereby they have savaged both the settlers and the land they wish to remain on. Described as “loving subjects” they show a very bias view of the settlers, the Native Americans are seen to cause all the damage and destruction when this is probably not the case. This differs greatly with the impression we get from many Native Americans today through the ideas they portray speaking of the many massacres where whole tribes were eradicated. I found it interesting that even though they describe the atrocities of the destruction between the natives and settlers they still see America as the land of freedom and still believe they are in a better position than those left in their homeland.

1 comment:

  1. Who is speaking here Grace? You say They, but don't actually define that

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.