American History Discussion Response

  Native peoples like the Massachusetts tribes enthusiastically welcomed European settlers to their shores up to the third decade of the seventeenth century.  Their motives were mixed.  Many thought the armed Europeans would protect them from their more powerful native enemies.  They also welcomed the trade with Europeans in skins and hides, receiving wampum in the form of shells and beads in exchange.  Natives generously shared with the settlers their belongings, supplies, food, and the skills necessary for survival in the New World.  What the settlers gave them in exchange was destined to destroy them: disease, firearms, whiskey, a brutal religion totally at odds with nature, and a demand for material goods that would rob them of their independence.

In the early 17th century the natives welcomed the European settlers to their land with open arms. Not knowing that the settlers motives were not as the natives had hoped they would be. Many of the Natives thought that the armed settlers would help protect them from other native enemies. They not only welcomed trade with the Europeans they shared their own belongings, supplies, food and taught them how to survive on the land. But what they did not see what they were getting in exchange was diseases, firearms, whiskey, religions that defied their laws of nature, and demands for material goods that would destroy their own independence.

The relationship between the settlers and the natives soon changed over time when the natives did not want what they had to offer. The natives did not want to be forced out of their land or be told they had to convert religions. They soon saw that the settlers were just using them as means of exploitation. The settlers made their own laws and listened to no-one but themselves. They had no regards for what was not even theirs to take.

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