Georgia’s early history is storied with conflict centered around ideals of race, gender, and religion. Though generally portrayed as an endeavor of the European white male, pre-colonial and colonial Georgia depended heavily, if not foundationally, on the contributions of slaves, Native Americans, and women, particularly Native American women.
From the beginning, the intersection of culture and religion shaped the early colony. The religious tenets the first explorers and settlers brought with them forced themselves on the native population of pre-colonial and colonial Georgia. (cornerstones, 2, para1). Priests were tasked with Christianizing a barbaric native population. Resentment brewed, rebellion was ripe, and, in 1597, a defiant Indian, Juanillo, (corner, 2-3) led a revolt against the Spanish that resulted in the murder of several Christian priests (Meyers, 7). Belief systems were clearly going to be a challenge.
James Oglethorpe landed on the southeastern coast of British America in 1733 (Jackson) with the intent of creating a new “charitable” (Jackson) colony, one of moral virtue; the new …show more content…
Native American women enabled much of the culture mixing with the English. Marriage among European men and Native American women was common (Gillespie, 188) and the families they raised – their children having the benefit of cross-cultural engagements - helped span the gap between the Indians and whites (Gillespie). Mary Musgrove, one of the most historically recorded of such Indian woman, spent years acting in the interest of the colony as a mediator between the English and natives only to be later stripped of influence for the same thing that made her useful to white colonists to begin with. Mary Musgrove mastered the “shifting racial and gendered boundaries” (Gillespie, 190) of early colonial Georgia. Without the efforts of Musgrove, the colony surely would have struggled to
From the beginning, the intersection of culture and religion shaped the early colony. The religious tenets the first explorers and settlers brought with them forced themselves on the native population of pre-colonial and colonial Georgia. (cornerstones, 2, para1). Priests were tasked with Christianizing a barbaric native population. Resentment brewed, rebellion was ripe, and, in 1597, a defiant Indian, Juanillo, (corner, 2-3) led a revolt against the Spanish that resulted in the murder of several Christian priests (Meyers, 7). Belief systems were clearly going to be a challenge.
James Oglethorpe landed on the southeastern coast of British America in 1733 (Jackson) with the intent of creating a new “charitable” (Jackson) colony, one of moral virtue; the new …show more content…
Native American women enabled much of the culture mixing with the English. Marriage among European men and Native American women was common (Gillespie, 188) and the families they raised – their children having the benefit of cross-cultural engagements - helped span the gap between the Indians and whites (Gillespie). Mary Musgrove, one of the most historically recorded of such Indian woman, spent years acting in the interest of the colony as a mediator between the English and natives only to be later stripped of influence for the same thing that made her useful to white colonists to begin with. Mary Musgrove mastered the “shifting racial and gendered boundaries” (Gillespie, 190) of early colonial Georgia. Without the efforts of Musgrove, the colony surely would have struggled to