Sound Bites -- Provocative excerpts from primary and secondary sources (some with audio commentary)
31-40 of 333 Sound Bites. [show all]
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31) Feed my sheep. (John 21:16-17 )
32) Now it is notorious, that the savages knew nothing of agriculture, when first discovered by the Europeans, but lived a most vagabond, disorderly, unrighteous life, -- rambling from place to place, and prodigally rioting upon the spontaneous luxuries of nature, without tasking her generosity to yield them any thing more; whereas it has been most unquestionably shewn, that heaven intended the earth should be ploughed and sown, and manured, and laid out into cities, and towns, and farms, and country seats, and pleasure grounds, and public gardens, all which the Indians knew nothing about -- therefore, they did not improve the talents providence had bestowed on them -- therefore they were careless stewards -- therefore they had no right to the soil -- therefore they deserved to be exterminated. (Washington Irving, History of New York. New York: 1809 [Book I, chap v]. )
33) . . . the litigants' land claims did not overlap. Hence, there was no real "case or controversy" and M'Intosh, like another leading Supreme Court land case, Fletcher v. Peck, appears to have been a sham. (Eric Kades, "The Dark Side of Efficiency: Johnson v. M'Intosh and the Expropriation of American Indian Lands." U. of PA Law Review 148.1065 [April 2000]: 1065-1190. Lexis-Nexis. 23 Sep. 03. )
34) Their [the Plymouth colonists] strong sense of being a "chosen people" is clearly manifest in recurrent references to a felicitous "divine providence." (Dwight B. Heath, ed., Mourt's Relation: A Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth. Bedford: Applewood Books, 1963: x )
35) The real loser of the Valladolid debate on the justification of New World conquest was the Native American, forced to be identified as either a noble (submissive) savage or a fierce (resistant) barbarian, either a tabula rasa awaiting conversion or an obstacle to the propagation of the faith. Either choice meant annihilation, the one of culture, the other of existence. (Anne DeLong, Lehigh University )
36) The Roman pontiff, successor of the key-bearer of the heavenly kingdom and vicar of Jesus Christ, contemplating with a father's mind all the several climes of the world and the characteristics of all the nations dwelling in them and seeking and desiring the salvation of all, wholesomely ordains and disposes upon careful deliberation those things which he sees will be agreeable to the Divine Majesty and by which he may bring the sheep entrusted to him by God into the single divine fold, and may acquire for them the reward of eternal felicity, and obtain pardon for their souls. (Pope Eugenius, Romanus Pontifex, papal bull of 1453: http://www.nativeweb.org/pages/legal/indig-romanus-ponti fex.html )
37) All of them go around as naked as their mothers bore them; and the women also, although I did not see more than one quite young girl. And all those that I saw were young people, for none did I see of more than 30 years of age. They are very well formed, with handsome bodies and good faces. Their hair [is] coarse—almost like the tail of a horse—and short. [ . . . ] They do not carry arms nor are they acquainted with them, because I showed them swords and they took them by the edge and through ignorance cut themselves. [ . . . ] They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. (Christopher Columbus, Thursday 11 October 1492, The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493. Abs. Bartolomé de Las Casas. Trans. Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 1989. )
38) First, when he casts out the enemies of a people before them by lawfull warre with the inhabitants, which God cals them not: as in Ps. 44.2. Thou didst drive out the heathen before them. But this course of warring against others, & driving them out without provocation, depends upon speciall Commission from God, or else it is not imitable. (John Cotton, "God's Promise to his Plantations," 1630. )
39) The interest in the American Indian was especially intense because in America it was proposed to put down in the natives' midst substantial groups of Englishmen. This raised the whole question of the right of displacement, a right which, considering the age, could be framed only in philosophic and religious terms, and specifically in this, the last age of the world before the Second Coming, in terms of native conversion. (Loren Pennington, "The Amerindian in English Promotional Literature." The Westward Enterprise: English Activities in Ireland, the Atlantic, and America 1480-1650. Ed. K. R. Andrews, N. P. Canny, and P. E. H. Hair. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 1978: 177. )
40) Who are the people of God? All People, civilized as well as uncivilized, even the most famous States, Cities, and the Kingdomes of the World: For all must come within that distinction. (Roger Williams, "Christenings Make Not Christians." The Complete Writings of Roger Williams. Vol. VII. Ed. John Russell Bartlett. New York: Russell & Russell, Inc., 1963: 32. )
