Quotes from James Michener’s book: Chesapeake

Somehow I had the illusion that the first white persons who came to North America were escaping religious persecution and were setting up an ideal country. The founding fathers of Confederation declared that all men are created equal, and that they have inalienable rights among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although I was aware that life was not that simple, I didn’t realize what all really happened. The treatment of the Native Americans and the Africans were far less than respectable. How can we move forward without seeking healing on these two very significant issues?

The book Chesapeake, by James Michener, a historical novel, brings out some of this early history of America. There is an interaction between  Pentaquod, the Native American, and Steed, the English immigrant that speaks strongly about the early relationship between the European immigrants and the Native Americans.

“The realization that old ties were about to be shattered saddened the former leader (Pentaquod), and he spoke gently to his friend. “What is it, Steed?”

“Pentaquod, ally of many years, why do you harm us?”

“There is no way that you and we can both share this river.”

“But we can! Your children and mine play together, speak the same tongue, love the same animals.”

“No, Steed. In all things we grow apart. The time for separation is upon us”

“No need. When Captain Hackett’s ship comes you can have all the things we have.”

“We do not want your things. They bring us only trouble…During many moons I have told my people that you and we could share the river, but I was wrong. You will and always want to burn more, destroy more. We shall leave you to your fires.”

Ruth Paxmore, the Quaker woman spoke out against slavery already in the 1600s.

“I see a day when the members of any Christian church will be ashamed to hold another man or woman in bondage. They will know without being told that so long as they keep one slave in their possession that they are acting outside the will of God…I see a day when every black human being along this river is taught to read the Bible, and write his or her name, when families are held together and children are educated, and every man works for an honest wage. And this river will be a happier place when that day of freedom comes”

Almost two centuries later, in 1841 we read about the continued support of slavery.

“…the Negro is genetically inferior, requires a master, has many fine qualities when properly guided, and cannot exist without some slave system….contrary to what certain mal-intentioned people are saying, slavery is an economic asset, for it enables landowners to keep in cultivation acreage which could not otherwise be utilized. No white man could possibly work outdoors in areas like the Carolinas, Alabama and Louisiana.”

There is a critical paragraph that helps us understand some of the present day challenges in Haiti, to understand how the Europeans treated their fellow human beings in Haiti.

“By all standards, and in the opinion of all, the one island that represented human slavery at its absolute nadir was Haiti. Here, under a remote French administration, accountable to no one, a band of cruel exploiters accepted those fractious slaves whom no one else could handle, worked them sixteen hours a day like animals, fed them little, beat them constantly, and buried them after four or five years. For a slave to be assigned to Haiti was a sentence of lingering death.”

The irony of the early American leaders in founding Confederation with its rights and freedoms has not been lost.

“The freedom enjoyed by citizens of the United States, to the envy of the know world, was engineered primarily be gentlemen of the South who owned slaves. Of the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence, those who made the greatest contribution were slave owners. Of those who framed the Constitution the majority of true intellects came from the South. Of the twelve Presidents who guided our nation to its present level of enviable success, nine have been slaveholders and their leadership has been the sanest and the most appreciated by the nation at large.”

In summary, I am dismayed at our religious forefathers in North America and how they chose to treat their fellow human beings. But, the book “Chesapeake” is only a novel. I only had to do a small amount of internet searching to understand that there is much historical truth in this book. I will discuss this more in a later post.