Olaudah chapter 4

It is good to hear that Olaudah was treated well. Typically we hear about slaves being treated poorly and with little respect. But Olaudah seems to be treated kindly and even sent to school. This is something you do not hear of very often.

I love to hear that he was able to get baptized. I think it is important for a person to have a faith, something to help them get through the tough times and give them hope. In this case, it gives Olaudah faith in an afterlife.

I cannot imagine what it would be like to be separated from one of my siblings and to wonder where and when I would be able to see them again.

This is a hard reading. I think it is because there is not a lot of emotion in the writing. When I am reading, it seems like the events are stated, not being told as a story. It is hard to understand how Olaudah really feels about the events. The most emotion is when he speaks about the chaos with the French Fleet and having to leave in the middle of the night. However, after reading this section a few times, it is hard to understand exactly what was happening and why exactly they had to leave. This could be because Olaudah did not understand and therefore could not give all of the details.

The story becomes clearer in the next section and has more detail about what was happening. This had to be something that is an extremely vivid memory.

When Olaudah is explaining the fight scene between the ships I can’t help but think of a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean.

This is the kind of emotion I like to read about. The description of having to get the powder during the battle and worrying if he was going to live or not is very interesting to read about. I cannot even imagine what this must have been like. To see your friends and ship mates being killed around you, your master being taken to the doctor; that is a lot of stress to have to deal with.

We all take for granted our education. For so many people an education is the most important thing and they would do anything to go to school, like Olaudah. Whenever I hear about people who do not have the opportunity to go to school it makes me appreciate what I have and the next time I have to wake up early for class or stay up late for homework I need to instead appreciate that I have the chance to learn.

This is a horrible feeling that we are left with at the end of this chapter. Olaudah is yet again sent to be a servant when he was sure he would be set free. And to think that he was treated so well when he was first a servant. Now he will most likely be treated poorly from his new master.

ch 1 and 2 coming to america

Chapter 1

In the earlier times, Europeans thought they were superior to other races. This is evident in a lot of cultures. Especially at this time because Europeans were a very powerful country and their spreading throughout the world only feeds to this notion. I never connected the dots and thought of it as early racism. This definitely makes sense though because it is a group that is treating a minority with disrespect. I think everybody relates racism to only the African American group but it happens to every race, even today. For years racism has been active and will forever be apparent in some way.

When people immigrated to the United States and the colonies they said it was to “Start a new life” in the “Land of the free”. The truth is, when immigrants came here they had to get jobs that were absolutely terrible and live in worse homes or apartments with multiple families. It is a wonder why people continued to come here. It just shows how terrible life in their home country must have been. In this book, it states that one of the main reasons was because of labor policies. If the labor policies of this time was attractive to people, they could probably drool over the policies of today because back in their day, they had very few and very vague policies that allowed the employer to treat them like crap.

I think calling the identity of the United States a “melting pot” is not completely appropriate. As we talked about in class it is more like a stew because each ethnicity that comes to the States still keeps their culture and traditions when they come here. There is a wide variety of cultures that are seen every day across the states. When people come to live here they do not just blend into the pot, they stand out by continuing their culture and tradition. A melting pot suggests the people lose their connection to their ancestral lives and completely commit to the way of life we lead here. I would say the identity should be the United States stew because the people who come here modify their cultures and traditions so they combine with the American way of life.

The end of the first chapter talks about the numbers and percentages of immigrants who came to the United States. The problems with these numbers is that not all immigrants were telling the truth when they came over. For example, some people claimed they had been to the states before; the officials would not completely document them because they would have gone through the process already. How many people did this? How many people have come to the United States this way or another way? I think if the repercussions were not so severe, like being denied access or being treated poorly, there would have been more people who would have been more compliant. 

Chapter 2

I feel bad for the people who were “tricked” into the promises that the propaganda showed in Europe. To promise the people a land of “milk and honey” is just wrong. These people didn’t know any better, they would believe anything that was posted. Instead they were lead to a land that was covered in harsh weather and disease.

I did know that many people had to serve either the boat or other families as a way to pay for getting to the new land. I did not know that there was such a high rate of slaves running away. I figure it would have happened but I did not realize it happened so often. I also would not have guessed that the owners would have gone to such an extent to relocate them. Putting up ads and fliers to have someone turn them in. it also surprises me that the ads were so detailed, to include what they were wearing and even the way the spoke! I don’t even think ads today have that!

I also find it ironic that Maryland was built on growing tobacco and much of the earlier colonies were built on this, yet today it is not taxed. Shouldn’t we be taxing the one thing that has been in demand since the beginning of our country?

The pictures at the end of this chapter are absolutely fascinating. The real life photos are very interesting because they show the rawness and reality of the times but the paintings and drawings show the true feeling of the time. The second picture that shows the first landing of the Mayflower looks charming and romantic at first but by examining it closer it also shows the hardships. That the couple in the left corner looks more worried and relieved than romantic and the woman on the far right is not holding a child but instead another woman who looks to have died or is very sick. It just makes me realize that these immigrants had to go through much more than what we originally think. They went through hell in order to make this great country.

sailing americas

When we were introduced to this reading, I thought it was going to focus on the way people came to the Americas and the way they traveled by boat. However, I did not expect the first section to focus so much on the early, early history. Today the Pacific Ocean is nothing compared to what it was back in earlier times. I could only imagine the difference between the boats of today compared to earlier versions. I agree with the author when he states that some researchers say humans have not been sailing for very long, yet cannot justify how people have migrated across the sea and across the water. It would only make sense for humans to travel across the seas in order to migrate to other countries. I find it weird and interesting to think that we currently live in a time where our sea levels are much higher than that of earlier times. To think that a previous coastline is submerged under the water is so fascinating. I guess this would explain why in the ocean you find areas that seem to “drop off”. It would be really cool if we had the ability to suck up the ocean water for one day just to investigate the area where these ancient coastlines existed to see if there are any boats or signs of civilization buried deep under the sand. But sucking up all the water and keeping the sea animals unharmed in the process is impossible, so we will have to deal with the little ability we have now.

Reading this article helps me to understand how difficult it is to really pinpoint the time when people inhabited the different continents. I would have thought that it was easier considering we have found a lot of fossils and traces of civilization. Then again, it definitely makes sense that we do not have much information on ancient peoples because as stated earlier, almost all of the ruins of boating is at sea levels much lower than ours today.

Throughout this reading, the author continues to comment how far people had to travel and how difficult it was for these people to travel across the ocean. It just amazes me how historians find this so impossible yet it happened. Somehow the ancient peoples defied the odds, worked hard, and managed to get across oceans.

The picture in the second section caught my attention. The map shows the glaciation during the Late Pleistocene age. It is so crazy to think that there was ice so much further than it was today. At first glance, it does not seem that it is much, but considering how long it takes to make a dent like that is unbelievable. It is also scary to think that we are still diminishing this today.

This article really opened my eyes to the issues that anthropologists and historians are facing in order to really find the way the original people traveled across the world.When more ancient peoples' boats are found, it will change the American history forever.