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In the introductory chapter of 'Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting' by W. Scott Poole, “Monstrous beginnings”, the author argues about how monsters were not only the mysterious creatures used for entertainment, but were also used as a cover, excuse for what the European explorers had done to Native Americans, as well as enslaved African, those who considered as different beings rather than human races. Specifically, the stories like 'Pocahontas' and 'The White Doe' were being used as propagandas to cover the truth between the European settlers and Native Americans.
It made some believed there was no conflict between two worlds, both could be coexisted peacefully. Poole also makes it clear throughout the text that other races beside “European” were categorized as monsters by the “New World” European settlers.
Christopher Columbus and his crews came to India, later mistakenly to be America searching for gold, slaves, and monsters. “Europeans found the monsters they searched for” (Poole, 30), they saw the natives’ lifestyle as uncivilized and savage.
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In his journal, he believed that the natives would 'decapitate their victims and drink their blood'. Difference in religions, and mindset created some misunderstandings between explorers of the New World and the natives. The author stated that 'not simply a savage version of humanity, but the monstrous races of their mythology' (Poole, 29). It was clearly that Europeans didn’t spend enough time to know more about the natives’ culture. Therefore, they misunderstood Native Americans, and categorized them as monsters.
It is the New World so everything about it is new and mysterious, and we humans like to make up stories to warn people about, or to exaggerate the problem.
Legends were made around the belief that Native Americans were monsters. Bringing 'relief from the gruesome facts of history' (Poole, 33). In the narrative poem 'The White Doe' or 'The Fate of Virginia Dare', written by Sallie Southall Cotten, contains the story about the first English/Christian child born in North America, Virginia Dare. The local natives held Dare captive when she was a child. In her adulthood, she was desired by a Native American shaman, but was jealous of her love for a young warrior. The jealousy drove the shaman to transform her into a white doe, and is ultimately killed by the young warrior. The tale focused profoundly on 'the racial imagery of the white child among the native peoples, transforming both the human Dare and the shapeshifter Dare into a sign of the emerging white dominance over the New World' (Poole, 35). Many tales like 'The White Doe' have been created to mask the harsh reality of colonial history with stories like 'Pocahontas' and the legend of 'the first Thanksgiving'.
It wasn’t the first time that Europeans categorized a race as monsters. With the same fate, conquerors of Europe capitalized and treated Africans as a monstrous race because of their different culture, appearance. Thomas Jefferson himself believed that African people 'are inferior to whites in the endowments of body and mind' (Poole, 46). Thus, justifying slavery on the basis of race and the belief of monsters. During the 1600s, the Puritan believed that Native Americans had an affair, and somehow related to the devil. Puritan Mather believed that the Native Americans had been 'seduced by Satan to come to America as his special servants' (Poole, 39). They were considered as “children of the Devil” in a literal sense. Enslaved Africans were also another target during the witch hunt, and would be charged for “the use of black magic against the white master class”. Other religions, or cultures were mistakenly known as witchcraft, and the Puritan accused those who practiced it as witches.
It is obvious that Poole wants to show us how the European explorers used their wrong belief in monsters to fool the people back then, and to cover up their horrible acts toward Native Americans, as well as the enslaved Africans. He quoted many stories to give us a better vision on how harsh and brutal the New World’s history was. It seems like the real monster, main antagonist in Poole’s article wasn’t neither Native Americans or Africans, but the European themselves.
What Was Hidden in the Symbol of Monsters. (2022, Jan 27). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/what-was-hidden-in-the-symbol-of-monsters-essay
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