CHAPTER 1, pg. 1-22
Columbus, the Indians and human progress.
Directions: read the above chapter and answer the following questions on this sheet.
Major Question: Is Christopher Columbus a Hero?
1. According to Zinn, what is his main purpose for writing A People’s History of the United States?
2. According to Zinn, how is Columbus portrayed in traditional history books?
3. What is Zinn’s basic criticism of historian Samuel Eliot Morison’s book, Christopher Columbus, Mariner?
4. What major issues does Bartolome de las Casas bring up regarding Spanish expeditions in the Caribbean?
5. Identify one early and one subsequent motive that drove Columbus to oppress indigenous peoples.
6. What was the ultimate fate of the Arawak Indians?
7. Compare the strategies and motives underlying the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortez and the conquest of the Incas by Pizzaro.
8. What were the major causes of war between the Powhatans and the English settlers?
9 Discuss the significance of Powhatan’s statement, "Why will you take by force = what you may have quietly by love?"
10. Explain Governor John Winthrop’s legal and biblical justification for seizing Indian land.
11. Explain the main tactic of warfare used by the English against the Indians.
12. According to Roger Williams, how did the English usually justify their attacks on the Indians?
13. What ultimately happened to the estimated 10 million Indians living in North America at the time of Columbus’ arrival?
14. How does Zinn attempt to prove that the Indians were not inferior? Provide examples.
15. There is relatively little disagreement among historians about what happened to the Tainos. Why do you think this story is not more widely taught in school?
14. Given what you have learned in this chapter why do you think Columbus Day is an official holiday for federal employees in the United States?
Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States
CHAPTER 2, Pg 23-38
Drawing the Color Line
Directions: read the above chapter and answer the following questions on this sheet.
Major Question: What are the origins of Racism in the United States?
1. According to Zinn, what is the root of racism in America?
2. How does Howard Zinn describe the way the “color line” was drawn in early America? Do you think the drawing of this line was intentional or unintentional?
3. Describe the colonial period referred to as the “Starving time.”
4. Why did Virginians Massacre Indians instead of enslaving them?
5. List a few reasons why Africans were considered "better" slaves than Indians in Virginia?
6. Describe the conditions that slaves on ships coming to America ("Middle Passage").
7. What was the position of the Catholic church (according to Father Sandoval) on slavery?
8. What evidence exists that America’s slaves did not accept their fate easily?
9. Why did slave owners fear poor whites?
10. Why do you think slavery is so often referred to as the “peculiar institution”?
Howard Zinn: A People’s History of the United States
CHAPTER 3 Pg 39-58
Persons of Mean and Vile Condition
Directions: read the above chapter and answer the following questions on this sheet.
1. What was the underlying cause of Bacon’s Rebellion?
2. What was the "double motive" of the Virginia government vis-à-vis Bacon’s Rebellion?
3. What groups of people took part in Bacon’s Rebellion?
4. Howard Zinn claims, “It was a complex chain of oppression in Virginia” (p. 42). What was this “chain of oppression”? What evidence does he provide to enforce this contention?
5. Explain indentured servitude (also known as the "headright system").
6. How did the voyage of indentured servants to America compare with the "Middle Passage."
7. What generally happened to indentured servants after they became free?
8. How does Howard Zinn support his belief that “class lines hardened through the colonial period” (A People’s History, p. 47)?
10. Explain the statement: "The country therefore was not "born free" but born slave and free, servant and master, tenant and landlord, poor and rich."
11. How did the rich manage to keep Indians "at a distance?"
12. What was the probable reason why Parliament made transportation to the New World a legal punishment for crime?
13. Explain the statement: "race was becoming more and more practical."
14. How did the development of a middle class help keep the wealthy in power?
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