Early American History

Tara King Page 1

Aug. 31, 2008

History 1013

Early American History

Through out reading this chapter I discovered a lot of very interesting things that had never been brought to my attention before. I really enjoyed learning some of the history that took place in America before it was actually given the name "America".

One of the first things that grabbed my attention was when I was reading about the Aztecs and their somewhat surprising way of life. The book describes the town as having thousands of neat houses made of stone and stucco along with whitewashed walls and interior gardens (Youngs page 3). When it came to the Aztecs lords and high priests, they were isolated from certain people during meals just so their idea of "lesser mortals" could not gawk at them. I did not like the Aztecs perception of sacrificing people in order for the Gods to grant them victory in war, sometimes sacrificing up to eighty thousand people at a time. I have never quite understood the minds of people who believe that sacrificing another human being is supposed to be pleasing to a God. If God creates man than why would he be pleased to see humanity destroy that?

I also liked learning about the people of Natchez, or as they were more commonly known as "The Mississippians". I found their system of living very different and odd from the other tribes. Although I did not like how they categorized people as either nobles, honored people and stinkards I quickly found it comparable to the way we label people as upper, middle and lower class. But what was strange to me was how they set rules on marriage between everyone. The great suns, or highest of all people, were required

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