Indian, British & French in Early America
Paper 1 - Topic 2 Yichuan Yin Professor Richard Johnson HSTAA 301 AA October 17, 2012 The Indian, The British & The French Located to the Southeast of Lake Ontario, the Iroquois Indians neighbored between the
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French Canada to the North and the British Virginia to the South. The three neighbors all had adequate land, all engaged in various degrees of trade and conflict with one another. The Iroquois Indians, being a native tribe, was an organized society based on individual’s duty and community cooperation. The British Virginians, while also controlled their social life based on reputation, was a much more hierarchical society filled with politically powerful landowners and poor hard laborers. The French Canadians, though intended strict secular control through the church, was no more than a mass of land scattered with a few useful labors and a handful of disobedient settlers. In the absence of established civil law, both Iroquois Indians and British Virginians relied heavily on gossip and public opinion for social control. An Indian warrior who slaughters a stolen cow would not face court or prosecution. Rather, his fellow countryman would call him coward and give him nicknames (RP, Wallace, 161). This reputation based behavior-checking system was more than sufficient to deter crimes. The British Virginians shared a similar concept of social control in the sense that “reputation counted for much in this society” (Berkin, 11). Men and women were held up to specific standards according to the social norm. However, gossip by Iroquois Indians was to remind people their sense of duty and tradition. It was a passive oral pun-
Paper 1 - Topic 2
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ishment done behind a person’s back. The Virginians fiercely accused each other on their reputation and moral in order to “expose any misbehavior of deviance from community norms” (Berkin, 11). Behavioral standard was based on the majority. The average Virginians busied themselves policing their
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French Canada to the North and the British Virginia to the South. The three neighbors all had adequate land, all engaged in various degrees of trade and conflict with one another. The Iroquois Indians, being a native tribe, was an organized society based on individual’s duty and community cooperation. The British Virginians, while also controlled their social life based on reputation, was a much more hierarchical society filled with politically powerful landowners and poor hard laborers. The French Canadians, though intended strict secular control through the church, was no more than a mass of land scattered with a few useful labors and a handful of disobedient settlers. In the absence of established civil law, both Iroquois Indians and British Virginians relied heavily on gossip and public opinion for social control. An Indian warrior who slaughters a stolen cow would not face court or prosecution. Rather, his fellow countryman would call him coward and give him nicknames (RP, Wallace, 161). This reputation based behavior-checking system was more than sufficient to deter crimes. The British Virginians shared a similar concept of social control in the sense that “reputation counted for much in this society” (Berkin, 11). Men and women were held up to specific standards according to the social norm. However, gossip by Iroquois Indians was to remind people their sense of duty and tradition. It was a passive oral pun-
Paper 1 - Topic 2
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ishment done behind a person’s back. The Virginians fiercely accused each other on their reputation and moral in order to “expose any misbehavior of deviance from community norms” (Berkin, 11). Behavioral standard was based on the majority. The average Virginians busied themselves policing their