Corn, colombus, and slavery. Speaks of 'Origin of Indian Corn', the diary of Colombus first voyage, and "

Essay by Anonymous UserUniversity, Bachelor'sA, April 1997

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Far and away I have done more reading in the past month for this class than for any class in the 13 years I have been going to school. I have really gotten into the readings and have enjoyed learning about the many historical events we have studied. There was about six readings that I enjoyed the most, but for this assignment I had to choose three that I would like to go into more depth about. I chose three very different topics and will discuss the passages about the origin of indian corn, the diary from colomb's first voyage, and a letter from a servant in virginia.

First, I chose the Ojibwa Legend about the 'Origin of Indian Corn'. The intended audience of this reading is anyone studying Indian life before European contact. The story is about an Indian boy named Wunzh who sets out on his major boyhood ceremony to see what kind of spirit would be his guardian through life.

Wunzh's goal of his ceremony was to seek out an easier way for his people to acquire food. By conquering a messenger from the 'Great Spirit', Wunzh created Mondawmin (or as we now know it as corn). This is an important reading because it demonstrates many aspects of Indian religion at that time. This account helped me better understand the ceremony of Ke-ig-uish-im-o-win, which is the major ceremony that those people held when a boy was ready to change from boyhood to manhood.

Next, I selected the passage from the diary of Colomb's first voyage. I especially enjoyed this reading because it taught me about a subject I previously knew nothing about; the great discoveries of Colombus. Colombus's intended audience was King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. He was giving them great detail...