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Date: | Fri, 17 Nov 2006 18:00:17 -0500 |
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Ron -
Please reassure Reekie that I do know that Santa Fe was founded late in the
16th C -- I'm just not that familiar with the historical details of
historical settlement in the SW with regard to slavery. I mentioned it
because it seemed more comparable to Jamestown and St. Augustine in that it
was intended as a permanent settlement, rather than just a stop on an
exploratory trek.
My undergraduate Spanish Colonial settlement in the 'New World' course was
about forty years ago, and I haven't tried to keep up with current
scholarship. I do recall some of the many significant differences between
the Spanish approach to the 'natives' and those of the English. Whether
motivated by religion or a desire for 'bound labor' the Encomienda system
(as I recall) drew more directly on medieval models. The 'natives' were part
of the land, not, as the English (with a few exceptions like Roger Williams
in Rhode Island) vermin to be disposed of.
I haven't seen too much in the Jamestown frenzy about 'Bacon's Rebellion' as
an example of challenge to Royal Authority. I hope that is because the
professional historical gatekeepers now recognize that what it was really
about was an attempt to void Gov. Berkeley's treaty with the natives, so
that Bacon and his cronies could run roughshod over lands that the Governor
had granted by his authority to the 'natives', to try to avoid more
massacres. Bacon thus becomes an odd pre-cursor of the present tendencies in
our nation toward hubris and hegemony. Democracy is for the white man, not
the "naturally inferior".
Tim T.
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