Sunday, September 6, 2009

the impact of race in florida

Race has played an important role in Florida's development since the first explorers arrived. Upon discovering the Native Americans who inhabited Florida, judgments have been made based upon their cultural and social customs. The Europeans came to Florida expecting a magical place where possibilities were hoped to be endless. The European settlers soon blamed the Natives for their failures as they entered the "New World" and found that their new home was far from what they expected. As they began to fail in the progress they hoped to have, they were quick to blame the Native Americans. Stereotypes were placed upon the Native Americans such as them being barbaric, cannibalistic, fierce, threatening, and animal-like species that were a threat to all European settlers and their advancements in their new habitat. Although this racism instilled by the European settlers prevented any alliance with the Native Americans, it did draw the Spanish, French, and British closer together in the sense that they all agreed that the Natives were barbaric and threatening to their societies. The European settlers may not have realize how beneficial it could have been had they worked with the Native Americans better to make their settlement more proficient.

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