Transcript Slide 1

Genocide in the Americas
David Stannard
1
Define “Genocide”
2
U.N. Convention on the Prevention and
Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
- New York, December 9, 1948
The Convention defines genocide as any of a number of acts
committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group:
killing members of the group;
causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
group;
deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated
to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
imposing measures intended to prevent births within the
group,
and forcibly transferring children of the group to another
group.
3
What does the article refer to
as a “comforting lie”?
4
What did William Bradford
describe as a “sweet sacrifice”?
What can we infer about William
Bradford from his point of view?
5
It was a crime for any
Massachusetts colonist to “shoot
off a gun on any unnecessary
occasion, or at any game except
an Indian or a wolf”
What do we learn about
Massachusetts’ culture from this law?
6
Boston’s Rev. Stoddard states his
ideas might be extreme “if the
Indians were as other
people…and are to be dealt
withal as wolves.”
What is the significance of equating
Indians and wolves?
(Or “savage dogs” as Pres. Jackson used)
7
What is the “prerogative of
victors”?
8
Do indirect deaths count when
considering genocide?
9
What is progress?
10
What is the price for
progress?
11
Is the U.S. unwilling to face up to
the underside of its own historical
experience?
12
Define “Genocide”
13
Was the destruction of Native
Americans a genocide?
14
Write your opinion on the value of this
reading. Consider all of the aspects of
history we discussed in regards to Zinn,
historiography, etc. Please be honest in
your evaluation of this reading.
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