"A History of the American People" by Paul Johnson

Last night's reading was tough for me.  My choice/optional book is "A History of the American People" by Paul Johnson.  Johnson is a well-versed and highly intelligent writer, so his book represents him well.  Packed in with lots of anecdotes, dates, figures, and analysis, it took some time to digest it all.  After reading a shorter, more concise, and introductory chapter in Cullen, I felt prepared to dive into a more thorough text.  I hope to give an overview of what this chapter was all about, especially for those of you who read different books for your optional book.

Colonialism in North America was part of a bigger and broader era of expansion.  The Portuguese got into slave trade in the mid 15th century and made it even more horrific.  Spain had a harder time of it and ended up treating the Indians pretty "ruthlessly" (Johnson 6).  Colonizers brought with them disease, non-native plants and animals, and money to establish plantation-style slavery.  The French were overall more peaceful with the Indians, hoping to trade goods with them.  A man named Richard Hakluyt encouraged the Queen to establish colonies, and he was part of a group to settle in Roanoke, VA.  Later more colonies like Chesapeake Bay started up.

There are some common themes for the various colonies.  For each group there were tremendous difficulties in getting used to a new land and making the best of the opportunity.  Despite abundant natural resources, the Jamestown colony collapsed partly because they didn't grow enough food to sustain themselves and were more focused on producing tobacco.  Relations with the Indians were often confrontational, like when the Roanoke people disappeared, possibly because of an ambush.  It's thought that they could have been "...absorbed into the tribe" (Johnson 18) afterwards.  Because many settlers settled because of want of religious freedom, there was a struggle about "where does freedom end and authority begin?" (Johnson 45).  Settlers came from different backgrounds but experienced common struggles.