How Did Americans Lead To Their Removal Or Abuse Native Americans?

Early American history is defined by periods of extreme violence against minority groups. Once Anglo-Saxons immigrated into the British Colonies, many colonists hoped to gain wealth and send raw materials back to England through mercantilism, but most “gentlemen” refused to do work for themselves. The puritans, for example, considered themselves to be god’s chosen ones, so they exploited natives and soon slaves from the Atlantic slave trade. The goal of my paper is to address the question of how Americans subjugated and harassed Native Americans leading to their removal and exclusion from American society. I will answer the question by analyzing five periods time periods, where their mistreatment worsens over time. The time periods of focus include their background before America’s “discovery,” initial contact and violent rhetoric, massive death and religious conversion attempts, the end of the American Revolution, and Indian Removal. A common myth about the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is that he found an empty continent that had plenty of room for settlers to inhabit. This was a falsification because in 1492, the population of America was between 50 to 100 million[1].

When they first met, the Indians taught the Europeans new farming techniques and they traded with each other. The gesture did not last long as it did not take long for the Europeans to start stealing Algonquin food. In retaliation, Powhatan declared war and started campaigns against the colonists. At first the Powhatans killed 347 Europeans, but the war escalated even further1. Powhatan was killed in 1646 and the Powhatans were forced to sign a treaty ceding their territory to the Europeans[4]. The Europeans used an extremely manipulative strategy to develop trust that they quickly destroyed to gain