3555 EXAM READINGS - IDENTIFIERS

Columbus - Letter to Santangel

Clues: “I discovered,” islands, gentle/naked people, gold, spices, claiming possession, endless resources

Themes: First contact wonder, selling the New World to the Crown

Tone: Upbeat, promotional, bragging, triumphant

Vespucci - Letter on His Third Voyage

Clues: Latitude/longitude, distances, mapping coats, naked peoples, cannibalism, natural observations

Themes: Early ethnography, navigation

Tone: Methodical, empirical, scientific

Columbus - Letter on his Fourth Voyage

Clues: Shipwreck, storms, injustice, “I have been wronged",” betrayal, sickness, complaints about royal officials

Themes: Self pity, fall from favour

Tone: Bitter, pleading, defensive

Cortes - First Letter

Clues: Richness of Tenochtitlan, temples/idols, human sacrifice, “service to God and King,” disobeying Velasquez, justifying actions.

Themes: Conquest as divine, legal mission

Tone: Justification, authoritative, missionary legal brief

Sepelvuda - Just Causes for War Against the Indians

Clues: “Natural slaves,” Aristotle, “barbarous,” “civilizing,” just war theory, Indigenous inferiority

Themes: Moral/rational defence of conquest

Tone: Cold, philosophical, hierarchical, racial rationalization

Las Casas - Destruction of the Indies

Clues: Massacres, burning, dismembering, outrage, “they are gentle lambs,” Spanish cruelty, moral condemnation

Themes: Advocacy for Indigenous protection, anti colonial critique

Tone: Furious, emotional, accusatory, vivid

Mun - Englands’ Treasure by Foreign Trade

Clues: Balance of trade, exports > imports, bullion, national wealth, commercial strategy

Themes: Classic mercantilism

Tone: Didactic, pragmatic, economic policy manual

Hakluyt - Discourse on Western Planting

Clues: Planting colonies, protestant/catholic rivalry, economic profit, national greatness, anti Spanish propaganda

Themes: Imperialism

Tone: Propagandistic, optimistic, promotional

Acosta - On the Salvation of the Indians

Clue: “Rational souls,” conversion, free will, natural law, free will, natural law, can they receive the Gospel? Missionary theology

Themes: Scholastic debate on Indigenous humanity

Tone: Intellectual, theological moralizing

Guaman Poma - First New Chronicle and Good Government

Clues: Letters to the King, corruption of officials, Andean customs, images, critiques of Spanish rule, appeals to justice

Themes: Indigenous rights, Christian and Andean moral critique

Tone: Sincere, moralistic, petitionary

Gustavas Vasa - Life of Gustavas Vassa

Clues: Kidnapping, Middle Passage terror, personal autobiography, literacy, Christianity, buying freedom

Themes: Personal testimony against slavery

Tone: Emotional, reflective, morally persuasive

Stedman - Narrative of a Five Years’ Expedition

Clues: Suriname plantations, whipping, torture instruments, maroons

Themes: Brutality of slavery, soldiers ambivalence

Tone: Observational graphic, military reportage

Broken Spears - Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico

Clues: Omens, sorrow, lamentation, burning temples, poetic descriptions of destruction

Themes: Indigenous loss, trauma, spirital devastation

Tone: Mournful, communal greif

Esther de Berdt Reed - Sentiments of an American Woman

Clues: Heroic heroines, patriotism, women’s sacrifice, fundraising, sewing shirts, moral duty to nation

Themes, Republican motherhood, women supporting the Revolution

Tone: Urgent, inspirational, morally uplifting

William III - Address on the French Question

Clues: French aggression, Catholic threat, alliances, European balance of power, national security

Themes: Protestant statecraft, anti-French

Tone: Formal, sober, statesman like

Glen - Role of the Indians

Clues: French diplomacy, English failures, trade alliances, comparison of colonial practices

Themes: Indigenous agency, diplomatic history

Tone: Analytical, comparative, historical

King George III - Royal Proclamation of 1763

Clues: Boundary line at Appalachians, reserved Indian territory, settlement restrictions, Crown authority

Themes: Imperial order, regulating westward expansion

Tone: Legalistic, commanding, bureaucratic

Jefferson - Declaration of Independence

Clues: Natural rights, we hold these truths, grievances, tyranny, self government

Themes: Enlightenment, republicanism

Tone: Confident, principled, declaratory

Olympe de Gouges - Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Clues: Mirrors Rights of Man, article by article feminist revision, demands equality, address men directly

Themes: Enlightenment feminism, critique of patriarchy

Tone: Bold, sharp, witty, revolutionary