Edward Randolph Quotes
The English have contributed much to their misfortunes, for they first taught the Indians the use of armes, and admitted them to be present at all their musters and trainings, and shewed them how to handle, mend and fix their muskets, and have been furnished with all sorts of armes by permission of the government, so that the Indians are become excellent firemen
Edward Randolph, ~1632-1703, Emissary of King James II, sent to colonies to investigate the overall state of colonial affairs, especially in New England, Report, 1685
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
At the time, the traders were mostly French who traded all kinds of goods and especially alcohol—usually rum—for fur animal pelts. Many of the Indians were partial to the French and French oriented traders who did not covet their land and would provide the Indians with alcohol and guns, lead and powder while English traders sometimes tried to restrict these items. Many tribes of American Indians are genetically very susceptible to alcohol—both in terms of immediate impairment—getting drunk and in developing a dependency on having alcohol—addiction or alcoholism.
Even at this early time, it was clear that whites had brought numerous diseases that decimated the Indians. Alcohol and disease killed many more native Americans than all the wars—intertribal and with the whites—ever did. Neolin warned but did not have more than regional influence.
At the time, some Palestinian Arabs claimed exclusive rights to the territory on the grounds that Arabs had dominated the area for the longest period of time. They gave no credence to the fact that the Jews had dominated the area and it was the center of their kingdom for many years before—that Jews had constantly lived in the area of longer than the Arabs, nor did they give any credence to the fact that the Christians had conquered the area from the Muslims during the Crusades.
Coping with the French and their Indian allies was a problem for all the American colonies and Franklin was the strongest voice for some kind of union or federation for not only mutual defense, but to facilitate commerce by having some uniform currency and basic laws of trade to promote the mutual economy. The 6 Iroquois tribes had years ago formed the Iroquois nation complete with a formal constitution that maintained tribal identity but also enabled unified action if any were attacked and provided mutual assistance on a number of economic areas. They became the strongest, wealthiest, healthiest and most sophisticated nation of North America before European colonization and unlike many other Indians with a few exceptions–see {21747} for an example–got along very well with the English colonists. Franklin was a great admirer and wanted to use some of their Constitutional provisions in the American Constitution 36 years later, but at the time tried to embarrass many American's into forming a union with language like this quote. Actually, he did not think of them as savages at all, but most Americans who knew little about them did, and Franklin was never above using people's prejudices to get them to buy into one of his political ideas.
Doty acquitted Chief Oshkosh who had murdered another Indian in retaliation of the murder of one of his tribe. Under the Indian customs of the time, revenge killings were normal and expected. The white citizens were outraged and voted Wisconsin’s first judge out of office. He later became Governor of the territory and when Wisconsin became a state, Doty became its Congressman.
To many, this quotation is shocking. TR was a presidential pioneer in race relations being the first President to ever invite a Black to dine at the White House. See {588996} for his views on Blacks. Although modern and liberal with respect to most minorities, TR had a major blind spot regarding Native Americans and was among the worst racists.
Mather was urging the community to protect their children against the Devil and his band. To exemplify just how terrible Devils were to his audience, he used a comparison to the worst thing the audience was familiar with—Indians. Although there were a few examples in Colonial America of Indians being perceived as benign or even people, they were few and far between, and tended to be in New York and Pennsylvania.
Edward Randolph, sometimes referred to as Edward Randolph of Bremo, was a ship captain, a London tobacco merchant, and the seventh and youngest son of William Randolph and Mary Isham.
