Similarities Between Edward Countryman And James Axtell

Beginning in the fifteenth century, several worlds, driven by political, economic, and religious forces in Europe, Africa, the Americas, met in what would soon be known as the United States. The nature of this contact was often dictated by the colonizers (I.E. Englishmen) and often overshadowed by violence and coercion. The collision of these three diverse groups of people weaves an interesting tale in History, one without which the United States could not have been formed.
In examining texts by Edward Countryman and James Axtell, we find that each group came to form the country as "complete strangers, but in America, all three groups, red, white and black, became inextricably intertwined." However, we also see that although these groups coexisted in the North American environment, they were by no means equal. In this new environment, Americans fashioned a society predicated on a contradiction--unprecedented social equality and political liberty for the English, white males versus bondage, dispossession, and disenfranchisement for the other groups. However, the joining of these three diverse groups, while divided by race, culture and stats, managed to maintain the influence of Native …show more content…
He presents a ravaged population, beset by war, disease, and displacement as the English drove them further and further away from their native lands. Eventually, as “Indian America was slowly but inexorably transmuted into a lopsided mosaic” they came to evolve into accommodating for survival, as the English introduced new methods of trade and livestock rearing, and some Natives even turned to slave catching. The message was clear, within the context of their culture and belief system, the Indians simply did what was necessary to subsist and survive, which ultimately led to the accommodation of the other