Explorers from the continent of Europe first visited the “New World” known as North America during the period of the 1500s. Prior to this point in time, the land was completely unknown to the majority of citizens around the planet. These particular adventurers viewed what would become the United States as an alien civilization, with entirely new plants, people, and animals to discover. Most importantly, they discovered a brand new community of individuals whose lifestyles and languages were never observed or head before. What the Europeans understood to be a “New World” was in fact quite old for the population that inhabited it, for they were to believed to have existed for well over 50,000 years. History refers to this population as Native Americans.
Initially, the Europeans found that this community possessed remarkable capabilities with respect to adapting to various environments. Their creativity and ingenuity allowed them a myriad amount of ways to live in deserts, across the seas, on prairies, and in forests. These alien people also proved to be superior hunters and bountiful farmers; building numerous towns and successfully trading across extensive distances with the numerous tribes that represented the whole of their community. As the Spanish, French, and English adventurers arrived in the country, they brought significant changes to the various tribes, including diseases which the Native Americans’ immune systems were not trained or prepared for. It was not uncommon to see entire villages decimated by afflictions such as influenza, chicken pox, smallpox, and measles. It is not estimated that these diseases were singlehandedly responsible for wiping out nearly 90 percent of the Native American population, allowing for only one in ten to survive.
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Another staggering change brought by the European explorers included new trade goods. For example, Giovanni Da Verrazzano was first commissioned by the French King to initiate trade with the Wampanoag after reaching Newport Harbor. Soon after meeting their new visitors, the Native Americans became very interested in the new products and raw materials, utilizing them to prepare special pelts such as deer hides for clothing and crafting metallic tools including knives, axes, and hoes. Eventually, they replaced their obsolete bows and arrows to design firearms with lead shots and powder. Their lifestyle, which mostly consisted of hunting for food, soon became replaced as the Native Americans started depending on their new visitors to meet their daily needs. Many of the colonial traders introduced rum as another good, which reportedly caused numerous problems for many of the tribes.
The last major change associated with the interactions between Europeans and Native Americans includes slavery. Unfortunately, the explorers required many workers to clear out fields and construct their new homes. Many of these included the Tsenacomoco, an alliance of Indians based in Virginia. By realizing that trade goods such as weapons and tools could be offered to several of the communities as compensation for captured Native Americans that lost tribal wars, the Europeans began to buy and sell them as slaves. Unbeknownst to most people who were only educated to think that Africans suffered under this inhumane trading behavior, the Native Americans represented nearly 25 percent of the slaves in America. Many of these citizens were sent to work in northern cities such as Boston or forced to go work near the Caribbean. Naturally, this led to further warfare amongst the various tribes, and many tried to relocate to escape the trade which shattered many communities. Eventually, this practice ended, however.
Despite the cataclysm felt by the invading colonies, the Native Americans proved strong as they were somehow able to transcend countless diseases, rippling shifts in their various cultures, and horrific slave trading. In the modern world, North Carolina houses up to eight of these enduring, proud groups including the Lumbee, Sappony, Waccamaw-Siohan, Meherrin, the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Haliwa-Saponi, Coharie, and Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. Although they are massively outnumbered by the European descendents, their presence serves to honor the ancestors of the past.
- https://www.ncpedia.org/history/early/contact
- https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Tsenacomoco_Powhatan_Paramount_Chiefdom
- https://www.biography.com/people/giovanni-da-verrazzano-9517737
