Looking at Silver, Our Savage Neighbors essay
1) All 1) All academic books have one central argument, a thesis upon which the entire book is based. The author, with the thesis, is attempting to prove to the reader an idea or concept. In your own words, what is the thesis of this book? What main thought is Dr. Silver trying to convince you of? [Tip: You may want to wait until you have worked through the other questions before answering this one]
The author’s thesis is the idea that the fear was the major driver of European colonists’ cruelty in relation to Native Americans. Silver develops the argument that white colonists exterminated Native Americans out of sheer fear of being exterminated by them. The lifestyle and actions of Native Americans frightened them and the fear became the major cause of their genocidal policies in relation to Native Americans. In contrast, to Silver, other researchers traditionally view policies conducted by European colonists as aggressive and aiming at the colonization of new lands with physical extermination or expulsion of the local population. However, Silver declines such arguments stressing that fear was the main driver of the cruelty of colonists in relation to Native Americans.
2) Silver finds parallels between the experiences of Europeans and Native Americans regarding their revivals. What were the “nativist revivals” discussed in Chapter 1 and what caused them? In what ways were the revivals and Europeans and Native Americans similar to each other?
The clash of two civilizations contributed to the revival among the native population of America and European colonists. Silver describes similarities in the revival of both Europeans and Native Americans. The parallel revival of European colonists and Native Americans was the result of the appearance of the common threat, which united Europeans and Native Americans. Europeans united their efforts in the struggle against Native Americans, which Silver presented as a threat to European colonists because of regular attacks of Native Americans on European settlers. On the other hand, Native Americans united their efforts in the struggle against a powerful enemy, the colonists, who could easily exterminate Native Americans using their contradictions and internal conflicts. At the same time, Native Americans felt the difference between them and the whites. Their revival was an attempt to protect their traditional values, lifestyle and their world, which changed irrevocably under the impact of the colonization. On the contrary, European’s revival was also associated with bringing the civilization to the world of savages.
3) Silver states that the violence experienced in colonial America was “in the most literal sense, terroristic.” What about the violence made it the equivalent of terrorism? What made this violence so fearsome for colonists? Provide an example or two that you believe best illustrates this point.
Silver focuses on the violent attacks committed by Native Americans against European colonists and associates those attacks with terrorist attacks. In this regard, Silver reveals the similarity of tactics and strategy used by Native Americans and terrorists. As Native Americans could not confront European colonists in the open struggle, where they would be definitely defeated because of European’s technical and tactical superiority, they used attacks on individual settlers and committed them with extreme cruelty, at least from European standpoint. As a result, European colonists witnessing atrocities committed by Native Americans feared them and responded to their attacks by their own attacks and massacres of Native Americans. In the course of Chapter 1, Silver draws numerous examples, when Native Americans caught European colonies unexpectedly, tortured and killed them, living their dead bodies or, to put it more precisely, parts of their bodies for other colonists to observe. In such a way, Native Americans terrorized colonists.
4) In Chapter 3, Silver focuses on, what he calls, the “rhetoric of suffering.” What does he mean by this term; how does it relate to the idea of the “anti-Indian sublime?” What was the purpose behind this rhetoric, and what effect did it have on colonists?
“Rhetoric of suffering” implies the growing fear of European colonists of Native Americans and their unexpected and dangerous attacks. The “rhetoric of suffering” implies the emergence of hostile attitude of European colonists to Native Americans because they viewed them as unseen enemy, who hides away and attacks unexpectedly to kill colonists. As a result, such rhetoric contributed to the development of the idea of the “anti-Indian” sublime. The “rhetoric of suffering” aimed at the determination of the further policy of colonists in relation to Native Americans. As a result, colonists decided to conduct attacks on Native Americans and unite their efforts in the struggle against their common enemy.
5) When Silver discusses “the white people,” in Chapter 4, is he suggesting that all Europeans were viewing themselves as a coherent group? Explain who was included and/or excluded from the concept of “the white people” and why.
Silver holds the premise that European colonists united their efforts in the struggle of Native Americans and, in face of Native American threat, they had started to view themselves as the white people. However, not all whites were actually included into the social group, which colonists viewed as the white people. For instance, Quakers, in spite of the fact of being white, were viewed by European colonists as enemies of the white people because they assisted Native Americans. As a result, Quakers were excluded from the white people community. On the contrary, German, French and Irish comprised the core of the white people community.
6) Silver begins Chapter 5 with the story of Thomas Quick. Why does he do this? How does this story relate to the overall theme of the chapter?
Silver begins Chapter 5 with the story of Thomas Quick to show how easy it is to accuse a person of serial killing. In such a way, the author attempts to show that the dominating view on European colonists is erroneous. Instead, he stresses that they were not coldblooded murderers, who slaughtered poor Native Americans and confessed in those murders. Instead, the author attempts to make the audience question, whether European colonists, who actually committed the policy of genocide slaughtering Native Americans as many contemporary researchers believe, were real killers or probably their crime was not such evident as it seemed to be and as was the case of Thomas Quick, who was accused and sentenced as a serial killer but turned out to be innocent.
7) In Chapter 6, Silver discusses scalp bounties and the violence of the 1760s. He claims that a “perceptibly increased segregation was one of the legacies of the 1760s.” How did scalp bounties and violence result in an increased segregation between Europeans and Native Americans? What role did the demands of “country people” play in this?
Scalp bounties have played the part of the division bell that segregated the white colonists and Native Americans. In fact, European colonists were at first appalled by the tradition of scalping killed enemies, which was widely-spread among Native Americans. At the same time, Native Americans viewed this tradition as the characteristic of their own and as a distinct feature of their military strategy. As a result, the Native American and the white community had grown segregated, while colonists launched a large scale violent campaign against Native Americans, whom they perceived as scalp hunters, which deserved physical extermination. In such a situation, the demand of “country people” to protect the whites and to punish Native Americans heated up the segregation and enhanced the violence aiming at the extermination and expulsion of Native Americans.
8) The image on page 214 (figure 7.3: The Irish and Germans, ridden by Quakers and Indians) summarizes the major theme of this chapter. Analyze this image and discuss how its message relates to what Silver is claiming in Chapter 7. [Hint: compare figure 7.3 to figure 3.1]
The figure 7.3: The Irish and Germans, ridden by Quakers and Indians shows that the author attempts to present the Irish and Germans juxtaposed to Native Americans and Quakers. In such a way, he distinguishes two groups, which were ethnically diverse, but were perceived as allies or as homogeneous groups. In this regard, the image mirrors the general theme of Chapter 7, which implies the growing confrontation between the whites and Native Americans and the emerging concept of the whiteness in the colonists’ community. Irish and Germans being quite different from each other unite their efforts in the struggle against Native Americans, while Quakers are rejected by Irish and Germans because they helped Native Americans. As a result, Irish and Germans excluded the Quakers from the white community. At the same time, they eliminated cultural, linguistic and other barriers between the two peoples and started to perceive them as the homogeneous white community.
9) What impact did connecting the British with Native Americans have on the colonists’ perception of the American Revolution? Why was a British-Indian alliance so alarming to the colonists, and how did they use that idea to rally support for the Revolution? Provide an example that you believe best illustrates this.
Colonists viewed the alliance of the British with Native Americans as the major threat to their survival in the colonies because they perceived Native Americans as the major threat to their position in their colonies and the major threat to their life. As the British allied with Native Americans, colonists had started to perceive the British as the enemy, while the alliance was perceived as the threat to their survival in colonies. In response to the alliance, they united their efforts to resist because this was not just the struggle for the freedom of the US but it was also and mainly the struggle for the survival of colonists and protection of the land, which they believed to be theirs. For instance, representatives of different ethnic groups, such as Germans and Irish united their efforts and supported the American Revolution feeling their unity as colonists, who confront the hostile alliance of British and Native Americans.
10) The title for Chapter 9 (“The Postwar That Wasn’t”) is somewhat unusual. Explain what you believe to be the meaning behind this chapter title. What is the main theme of this chapter, and how does the chapter title relate to that theme?
The title of Chapter 9 gives implications that the author questioned the end of the war. The American Revolution brought the US independence from Great Britain. However, their confrontation and the struggle against Native Americans persisted. In this regard, the war was not over and there was no postwar as the author points out in the title of the chapter. In such a way, the title is closely related to the main theme of this chapter and shows that colonists, who had gained independence had not given up the war on Native Americans, which used to be allies of Great Britain.
11) What, in your analysis, are the best and/or worst features of this book? You response should go beyond simply a comment on the number of pages or the use of advanced vocabulary, and discuss the ideas proposed, the presentation of those thoughts, and the logic of the evidence in relation to the main argument of the book.
The best feature of this book is the attempt of the author to view policies and actions of European colonists from their standpoint, taking into consideration, the environment, which they lived in, threats, which they faced, and relations with Native Americans. For instance, the author compares attacks of Native Americans on colonists to terror attacks today and reveals considerable similarities between them. Such comparison contributes to the justification of colonists’ policies and cruelty in relation to Native Americans because, in face of the threat of terror attacks, the modern society agrees to exterminate terrorists without any trial. Colonists could think the same way too in relation to Native Americans. The weakest point of the book is the overestimation of the fear of Native Americans as the major driver of colonists’ cruelty and extermination of Native Americans. Obviously, colonists had economic interests in the physical extermination and removal of Native Americans from their land, but the author presents colonists’ policies as defensive, while they were offensive by their nature, if one takes into consideration outcomes of those policies.
12) Do you see any parallels between what Silver is suggesting in this book and our culture today?
In fact, the parallel between the contemporary threat of terrorism and the threat of Native Americans, as they were perceived by colonists is obvious. At any rate, Silver presents Native Americans as terrorists because they evoked fear in the white population of colonies. Such parallels are obvious, although they are very disputable from historic point of view.
have one central argument, a thesis upon which the entire book is based. The author, with the thesis, is attempting to prove to the reader an idea or concept. In your own words, what is the thesis of this book? What main thought is Dr. Silver trying to convince you of? [Tip: You may want to wait until you have worked through the other questions before answering this one]
The author’s thesis is the idea that the fear was the major driver of European colonists’ cruelty in relation to Native Americans. Silver develops the argument that white colonists exterminated Native Americans out of sheer fear of being exterminated by them. The lifestyle and actions of Native Americans frightened them and the fear became the major cause of their genocidal policies in relation to Native Americans. In contrast, to Silver, other researchers traditionally view policies conducted by European colonists as aggressive and aiming at the colonization of new lands with physical extermination or expulsion of the local population. However, Silver declines such arguments stressing that fear was the main driver of the cruelty of colonists in relation to Native Americans.
