Cultural Projection in America's Colonial Period

1. LECTURE 5 IMAGES OF AMERICA IN THE COLONIAL PERIOD and THE EARLY REPUBLIC

2. CULTURE PROJECTION • Constant shifting of Self and Other via cultural projection • Defined by Richard Merelman as: the conscious or unconscious effort by a social group and its allies to place new images of itself before other social groups and the general public • Via cultural production a given minority group struggles against stereotyping

3. TYPES OF CULTURE PROJECTION • Hegemonical : the dominant group describes the dominated one • Counterhegemonical: the dominated describes itself to the dominant • Syncretization: the combination of both elements in the description of a given minority culture • Polarization: rejection of the presented image on both sides

4. TRANSLATIO IMPERII • Pre-Columbian explorers carved the proof of their visit on rocks • Plymouth Rock • Indian petroglyphs on Dighton Rock, Bristol County, Mass.

5. THE PLYMOUTH ROCK VERSES • The Eastern world enslav’d , it’s Glory ends, • And Empire rises where the Sun descends • The expansion of the empire to the west • These lines are part of oral tradition • Stuart Hall: Cultural identity is constructed through memory, fantasy, narrative, and myth • Clearly, hegemonical communication

6. THE PLYMOUTH ROCK VERSES • Expression of the victory of western civilization • America as a new beginning • The empire will be WASPM dominated • Man will control space, American exceptionalism • No counterdiscourse • Thirding: negating the Eastern World, yet building upon it

7. THE RISING GLORY SCHOOL • Based upon Translatio Imperii • Earlier proponent: Cotton Mather—Theopolis Americana (1710) • Benjamin Franklin • Hugh Henry Breckinridge: magazine editor, author of patriotic dramas, main work: Modern Chivalry (1805) dominance of monarchical spirit over young American democracy

8. THE RISING GLORY SCHOOL • PHILIP FRENEAU: poet, sailor, newspaper editor,Patriot, imprisoned by British, dies at 80: returning from the tavern a week before Christmas, lost his way in the snowstorm • Poet of the American Revolution • Author of ”The Indian Burying Ground” • Here still a lofty rock remains/On which the curious eye may trace/(now wasted half by wearing rains)/The fancies of a ruder race

9. THE RISING GLORY OF AMERICA • I see, IseeFreedom’sestablishedreign: cities and men,/Numerousassandsupontheoceanshore, /andempiresrisingwherethesundescends • The RisingGloryschoolcarries a negativeundertone: Europe’smonarchic and feudalinstitutionsstillexercisesignificantpower over America: Toomuch of Europe here transplantedo’er/Nursedfeudalfeelingsonyourtentedshore/BroughtsablesiresfromAfric, call’ditgain/And urgedyoursirestoforgethefatalchain • Joel Barlow—Columbiad (1807)

10. ENGLISH FOLKSONGS CRITICIZING AMERICA • A wilderness • Lack of cultures, Americanswererubes • Puritanism of New England • The hard life of theindenturedservant • Transportation of prisonersonships, a race of criminals • A loathsomeplace • IgnorantEnglishmenbelievepromotionalliterature and immigratetothe New World • A West-CountryMan’sVoyageto New England

11. CRITICISM OF AMERICA BY THE ENGLISH CULTURAL ELITE • Sydney Smith:”In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book,or goes to an American play? Or looks at an American picture or statue? What does the world yet owe to American physicians and surgeons?What new substances have their chemists discovered? Or what old ones have they analyzed?What have they done in mathematics?Who drinks out of American glasses?”

12. NEW ENGLAND’S ANNOYANCES • America’s first folk song (1643) • Describes the hardships of life at the colonies • (bad weather, poverty, hard life of the farmer) • Burlesque image of Americans, a self-caricature • Describing hardships, yet pride, and reassurance of identity-thirding

13. NEW ENGLAND ANNOYANCES • The place wherre we live is a wilderness wood,/Where grass is much wanting that’s fruitful and good • Our money’s soon counted,for we have just none,/All that we brought with us is wasted and gone • And of our green corn-stalks we make our best beer/We put it in barrels to drink all the year

14. SATIRIC IMAGES OF THE SOUTH • Ebenezer Cook: The Sot-Weed Factor (1708) • Appears as a parody of the South: hard drinking planters marry transported harlots, illiterate lawyers, judges, • Yet, the author plays a trick (sot-weed, tobacco), responds to English stereotypes • Negating, yet building on the above images • Counteracting anti-American images

15. REVIEW • What types of cultural production did you recognize in the previous texts? • Hegemonical: • Counter-hegemonical: • Any example of thirding? • What is the geographical and technological basis of the New England Annoyances?

16. LECTURE SIX • THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLOR LINE

17. SLAVES OR INDENTURED WORKERS? • 1619: Dutch ship brings slaves- J. Saunders Redding • Blacks were slaves, a difference from the category of indentured servants • Racial feeling develops based on hatred, contempt, pity, and patronization

18. FACTORS PROMOTING THE GROWTH OF SLAVERY • The needfor labor inthecolonies • The needtoproducefoodespeciallyaftertheStarving Time • Indians and slavery: settlersfear of being outnumbered, Indiansknewtheland • MainlandIndiansdifferedfromthose of encounteredbyColumbus, couldprovideforthemselves • Despitesuperiortechnologycolonistscouldnotbecomesuccessfulinagriculture, (growcorn), thusridiculedbyIndians

19. THE INTERNATIONAL SLAVE TRADE • Regular slave trade began when 10 Africans were taken to Lisbon by the Portuguese • By 1619 a million blacks had been taken to the Americas • African societies: used iron, skilled in farming, yet feudal, and used human sacrifice • Leading kingdoms: Timbuktu, Mali, Benin

20. FEUDAL AFRICA • Differs from European feudalism • Not based on classic Greece and Rome • Tribal life, community spirit was retained • Contained landlord and vassal hierarchy • Built upon agriculture

21. SLAVERY IN AFRICA • Slaves in Africa were more like serfs of Europe • Ashanti Kingdom: slaves had rights to marry, own property, own a slave • Slaves could be adopted by the slave holding family • Not driven by a desire for limitless profit • Not race based • Slaves were not considered chattel

22. INTRODUCTION OF SLAVERY • 1639-1640: Black servants are limited in freedom, unequal treatment and harsher punishment • Re-enforcement of the master-dominated relationship • Negative white perceptions of the color black • Blacks, whites worked together • 1661: Miscegenation, marriage of whites to blacks is punished

23. BLACK REACTIONS • Attempting to escape from the slave camps in Africa • Slave rebellions in Hispaniola, 1520’s, 1530’s • Teaching disobedience to Indians • Resistance forms: from quiet disobedience— to running away

24. TECHNIQUES OF SLAVERY • Psychological: • --impressing the inferiority of slaves • --merging slaves’s interests to owner’s interests. • --breaking up the slave family • Physical: • --discipline of hard labor • --severe punishment for disobedience

25. Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave 1845 • You saw how a man was made into a slave, • Now you will see how a slave will be made into a man --- chiasmus • Rene Girard mimetic crisis • Sacrificial victim

26. SLAVE REBELLIONS • 1712: New York, 10% of the population was slave, 25 blacks and 2 Indians revolted • 1739, Stono, -South Carolina, 80 slaves rise up • 1663: Whites joined blacks in conspiracy • 1676: Nathaniel Bacon’s rebellion

27. DISCUSSION How is slavery described in literature? What were the main reasons for the introduction of slavery? Which type of slavery can be considered more negative and damaging, African slavery or slavery in America?