The Indian Village Of Secoton, By Amerigo Vespucci

During the 16th and 17th centuries the Native Americans were seen as savages. The kind of picture that would be constructed would be them being seen as animals and ‘people’ who were not human enough for the foreigners who traveled to this new found land. In “Mundus Novus” Amerigo Vespucci describes the Native Americans as “gentle and amenable (503).” Vespucci thought it was strange that they did not wear clothing, “both of the sexes go about naked, covering no parts of their bodies; and just as they spring from their mothers’ wombs so they go until death (503).” Native Americans did not live with religion, “they lived according to nature (504),” Vespucci and his people did not see them as civilized people, they saw them as people who were …show more content…
In the first painting “The Indian Village of Secoton,” the village is painted as a serene place where worships take place, the community comes together to eat. The huts in the town are close together meaning that the village is a close community. In the second painting “Algonquian Indian Chief” is seen as a high political figure in the community (508). In the picture is seen almost as an animal, including the tail and markings on his body, White did not see the Native Americans as humans but as wild animals almost with human like characteristics. In the third picture the women and child in the picture are barely clothed. Their lack of clothing emphasizes the lack of human characteristics they had. The woman has a lot of masculine features to her with her child. She also has tattoos and markings on her body just like the men do in other paintings. These paintings capture what the true Native American looked like according to John White and many other settlers who colonized in the new …show more content…
They are referred to as savages, barbarians and even demonic. After being taken Jogues was tormented by “hunger, Fiercely burning heat, and the threats and hatred… (514).” Many died from the torture of the Natives, their cruel punishments and tortuous left “ pain in [their] wounds…, became putrid(514).” This very negative image appears for the Iroquois Native Americans, their attempts to tear through flesh and expose bone is exposed make them unlike humans and more barbaric and uncivilized. Their sufferings continued for days on end, including having thumbs sliced off and other various body parts cut off. Hot coals were thrown on their stomachs and the Iroquois watched and enjoyed their