Slavery During American Revolution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Slavery During American Revolution - Essay Example The Arawaks also provided food, gifts and water to Christopher Columbus and his crew upon arrival in the territories of America. All these humane care and concern as displayed by Arawaks to Columbus and his group were senseless in ensuring continued peace and freedom among the communities of the Arawaks. These events as faced by Arawaks marked the sad the beginning of the slavery and American Revolution. Derived from the meek nature of the Arawaks, Columbus and his group developed mechanisms and ideas of converting innocent and peasant community into their slaves (Zinn 1). In the reports of Zinn (1), Columbus and his group were pleased with the good bodies of the Arawaks and the fact that they lacked dread weapons earned Columbus and his group much confidence to pursue and subdue the Arawaks in their own land. Zinn (1) connotes Columbus saying, â€Å"They have no iron. They got spears made of cane†¦they would make fine servants†. Columbus and his group had well wedged iro n weapons, which they even witnessed, cut one of the Arawaks when he received the weapon from the Columbus by holding the sharp edge. Columbus was also coined arguing that the ignorance of the Arawaks is the reason as to why the cut themselves with the iron. Columbus and his group on realizing that Baham island s were rich in precious gold, he resorted to engage forced slavery in the extraction process of the gold (Zinn 1). In order to enhance the power of his crew, Columbus travelled back to Italy with elements of gold to convince king to add him some other personalities to help him utilize the Arawaks in mining of the gold. Zinn (1) confirms that Columbus used his boosted force to compel the miserable Arawaks work in the mines and obtain him gold under slavery. Much work with insufficient food led to suffocation of the Arawaks thus leading to their death in large numbers. According to Zinn (1), Columbus also seized and enslaved a population of Indians in the Caribbean Island after he recognized that they were equally non-brutal. The enslaved Indians worked in the gold rich mines to excavate gold that were later transported to Europe. Many Indian however faced death due to their stubbornness to the Europeans. Those who could not work as slaves harmed and killed. Zinn (1) also confirms that Columbus picked 500 strong men among the Indian and Arawak communities to load gold into the ships and journey to Europe. Some of the slaves boarded on the ships in the reports of Zinn (1) died on the way to adverse cold weather in the ocean. Those who managed to reach Spain were sold as slaves to the rich households in Spain. Indians were forcibly compelled to gather gold in the depleted gold mines. Failure to collect sufficient amount called for mistreatment. Zinn (1) further reports that, the massive murder was directed to the Arawaks who tried to rebel against the Europeans. In addition, Indian and Arawaks under imprisonment faced merciless hanging by the Spaniard armie s (Zinn 1). In the views of Zinn (1), Pizarro one of the successors of Columbus conceded vehement killing of Indians whom he considered as scarifies to his gods. Indians would resist the domination of the Europeans to convert them into slaves. Indians’ resistance made Europeans to advance numerous attacks against the Indians, which included destruction of crops and death of people and animals. Zinn (2) reports that the white settlers in Virginia indulged in large

Comparing Texts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Comparing Texts - Essay Example The ways in which language is employed to discover its subjective and illusionary nature is different when employed in poetry, plays or novels. Time and intended audience also become factors in how authors choose to explore this element of language. By comparing the use of language in Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 and Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author -- both intended for mature, educated audiences -- to the more modern novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling intended for a less mature, less educated audience, it is possible to see how truth is questioned through language. Shakespeare’s tone in Sonnet 18 is playful and ironic as he subtly pokes fun at the Romantic language that was then informing literature. He uses formalized constructions to build up an idealized sense of his female character consistent with the concepts considered important by the Romantics, â€Å"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day, / Thou art more lovely and more temp erate† (Shakespeare, 1969: 1456/1-2). However, he never actually tells his audience anything about this person. All the audience is permitted to know about her is that she exists, even if only in Shakespeare's mind. This levity within the very formalized, academic poetic world was out of step with his contemporaries. Despite the levity, Shakespeare used a very formalized style, informed by the newly introduced Italian sonnet style but with a twist. Shakespeare sticks to the 14 line structure and the iambic pentameter expected for a sonnet, but he follows his own rhyme scheme that blends more comfortably with the English language (Furniss & Bach, 2007: 579, 581, 593). This scheme follows an abab cdcd efef gg pattern. It gave him greater flexibility in matching the rhyme. Even then, he found it necessary to stretch the rhyme a bit, as in lines 9-12: â€Å"But thy eternal summer shall not fade, / Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st; / Nor shall death brag thou wan der’st in his shade, / When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st.† Combined with the relaxed approach taken by his tone, the formal structure of the poem makes it difficult for a modern audience to understand the joke. Through his use of language, Shakespeare brings his subject down from Romantic idealism to the everyday world of the common man. While Shakespeare mentions that â€Å"Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines, / And often is his gold complexion dimmed;† (5-6), giving the scene a sense of beauty, he keeps his subject on the level of the real by adding the twist of providing his readers with a description befitting just about any woman. Through tone, style and poetic devices such as imagery, Shakespeare manages to poke some fun at the traditional academic approach to poetry by bringing in more common language usage. Shakespeare’s woman, because of his tone, style and poetic devices, flashes in our minds as a woman of high quality, sub stance and perhaps even nobility, but still a living, breathing, human woman. In the same way that Shakespeare uses figurative language to both expose and hide his female subject, Pirandello uses meta-theatre to both expose and hide his characters in Six Characters in Search of an Author. From the beginning, it seems these characters are fully exposed to the audience. There are specific stage directions provided ensuring that the audience is aware there are no theatrical tricks being employed. Directions at the opening of Act I specify the stage should be "half dark, and empty, so that from the beginning the public may have the impression of an impromptu performance." The Characters begin to demonstrate their