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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 5 page research paper that examines how slavery evolved as a facet of Cherokee society. Principally, the writer concentrates on the work of Theda Perdue, who argues in her text Slavery and the Evolution of Cherokee Society that the adoption of European-style slavery of Africans evolved from the Cherokee reaction to the social change engendered by European colonization. Bibliography lists 4 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khperche.rtf
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life, yet had a profound impact on their culture. An examination of her argument demonstrates profound insight into the Cherokee culture and how this particular tribe of Native Americans
reacted to the social change that accompanied European colonization. Perdue demonstrates how Cherokee culture evolved from a subsistence-based economy to one that emulated the European colonizers. In presenting the
Cherokee perspective of slavery, Perdue, first of all, discusses the form of slavery that already existed in Cherokee culture prior to the arrival of the English. While the Europeans equated
the presence of "owned" individuals with their own concept of slavery, the two concepts were not identical. The atsi nahsai or "one who is owned" were generally
members of other tribes who had been captured in battle. Rather than servitude, most of these individuals were tortured to death. Perdue explains how the Cherokee believed that a great
calamity would befall people who did not avenge the death of a kinsman. Perdue comments that whites "did not realize that vengeance was a duty" (5). Therefore, it can
be seen that the atsi nahsai were not procured to enhance the wealth of the owner. In fact, Perdue explains how the Cherokee culture was a subsistence-based economy, totally devoid
of any profit motive. Perdue writes, "The plantation system, the institution of slavery, and the economic values of ...European planters and colonizers were truly alien to the aboriginal Cherokees" (xii).
This situation changed as the Cherokee adopted many aspects of European culture. In her prologue, Perdue explains that colonization causes two basic reactions from the native inhabitants of the colonized
region. Citing philosopher Albert Memmi, Perdue argues that it is typical for oppressed people to attempt to forge a new identity and to base this new identity on the model
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