Changes in the Land
Chapter Abstracts and Synopses of William Cronon's book, Changes
in the Land.
Chapter One
In chapter one of William Cronan's book, "Changes in the land",
Cronon begins by developing the thought process to which Henry David Thoreau
based some of his early writings on. He tells of how Thoreau became intently
interested in depicting the alteration of the New England landscape from
reading the book "New England prospect." This book, written by
English traveler William Wood, greatly detailed the landscape he found when
he arrived in the New Land in 1633. From the reading, Thoreau sought to
capture the vary differences that the two centuries of European settlement
had made on the New Land. In turn, he posed the question "How did the
"nature" of New England change with the coming of Europeans, and
can we reasonably speak of it's changes in terms of maiming and imperfection."
Initially, Cronan explains the physical characteristics to which Thoreau
wrote about. Envisioning how the forests have much been reduced in number
from its former state, and the massive amounts of wild berries that have
also been lost. When referring to the changes in animals, Thoreau disgustedly
reports of an enourmous loss in mammals, birds, and fish, and claims it
to not only be a loss in nature, but a loss in humanity.
Cronan goes into detail of how early natural Historians such as Thoreau
and Edward Johnson continually find ways to depict the changes as mans negative
impact on the land. Whether mans actions are negative or not, they do expose
early signs of materialism. We see this when natural historian, Fredrick
Jackson Turner, states the human process of development to be "from
Indian to clearer of the forest to prosperous farmer."
Although it is evidently true that man has changed his natural environment,
he can not be blaimed for all alterations. To think that man came to find
a completely vigin land is totaly out of the quetsion. Indians had inhabited
our land for thousands of years, and significantly modified the environment
for their purposes. So it is not to say that English settlers were wrong
for the changes they brought. Cronan backs this idea by saying "The
environment may initially shape the range of choices available to people
at a givin moment, but the culture reshapes the environment by responding
to those choices." Futhermore, we can not entirely disagree with the
changes brought about, b/c they were indeed necessarry for life to evolve.
It wasn't virgin land that changed, it was an Indian landscape of precolonial
times that we advanced and modified to our growth as humans.
Submitted by Chris Smith
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Chapter Two
"Landscape and Patchwork", discusses Europeans early views of
America. This view was confined to the eastern seaboard, from the mid-atlantic
to New England. This chapter dicusses the abundance of flaura and fauna.
The abundance is so great that a flock of pigeons darkens the sky. Maps
of this time period were limited to the coast as man did not explore to
the west for quite some time.
Man begins to associate particular trees with certain soil types as well
as moisture levels. They associate certain trees with acidic soils and
others with fertile land, perfect for agriculture. They organize these
trees as patches among the forest. Man eventually begins stripping forest
for fields. This process was very slow at the time, due to the low number
of people inhabiting North America.
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Chapter Three
Early colonists were misleading in two ways in their reports of the
new world. First, they thought of the indians as poor and lazy, and
second they reported New England as a land where little work was required
for payoffs greater than that of England. Because of this the arriving
colonists often starved to death believing they would never have to deal
with times of a lack of food. The surviving colonists tried to set up
work habits similar to those of England but to do this they had
to rely on supplies from England for several years. What the English
lacked was the knowledge possessed by the indians of how and where to find
food in the surrounding environment. The indians were very successful at
this because they were mobile. The northern N.E. indians main source of
food was hunting and fishing and not agriculture as it was in the south.
They stayed inland during the winter months going through long periods
with out food, and then moving to the sea shores during the summer. The
English thinking that it was lazyness to not store enough food during the
summer to have plentiful amounts all year, did not realize that this was
helping the indians by keeping there population down and thus allowing
there to be plentiful amounts of food during the spring.
The southern agricultural indians hunted only moderately to
supplement there diet made up mostly of grain. They also grew corn and
because it was so hard to raise they planted other crops in the same
fields serving the purpose of preserving the soil and cutting down on any
weeds. These crops were mainly the responsibility of the women because
they were compatible with child care, that is, they were close to home and
time could easily be taken away from the day to day tasks. During the
summer months men went on long hunting and fishing trips until the harvest
came. This was a time of great celebration as well as a time for wars
with neighboring tribes. After the harvest the indians would store there
food and move there villages to the winter campsites. It was in these
winter months that the men would break into small hunting bands and go
after bear and deer which was not just an important source of calories but
also one of clothing for the following year.
The southern indians made a much greater impact on their environment
than the northern indians. This was largely due to their use of fire. Not
only did they use fire for clearing fields but they also used large fires
for warmth and cooking all day long, this being a major reason they had
to
move their camps so often. They also set ground fires two times a year to
destroy the under brush making it easier for them to hunt and travel.
Although it doesn't seem like it would, these fires had a very positive
ecological effect for the indians. It created favorable conditions for
berries and other such gathering foods which would bring herbiverouse
animals to the area. This in turn attracted carniverous animals to the
area providing the indians with healthy amounts of food sources.
The English however viewed this as not treating the land properly
and along with other claims against the indians morality used it as
grounds for conquering.
In chapter three of Changes in the Land, there are three main
focuses, the relationship between the New England indians and their
environment , the relationship between the colonists and their new
environment and how the indians and the colonists viewed each other. The
indians believed in being mobile and following the seasons. Both the men
and women had very important roles. The men would hunt, while the women
would stay close to the home doing the gathering and farming. The
colonists after realizing the New World was not one of little efforts for
great payoffs believed in staying in one fixed place and working hard on
that land.
These two philosophies were very opposed and neither one agreed with
other. the indians felt that the colonists did not work intelligently and
the colonists felt that the Indians were lazy and did not use the
environment properly and therefore did not have any rightful claim to the
land. This is where the main conflict between the indians and the
colonists began.
Submitted by Ben Nevejans
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Chapter Four
This chapter discussed the different views of the land as seen by the Indians
and the early New England colonists. The New England puritans
believed that people who moved so much and worked so little had no right
to lay claim to the land they inhabited. Indian villages moved a lot to
take advantage of the lands rich diversity, all they owned could be packed
on there backs and transported to another site. The colonists idea of
using the land invovled clearing away the wilderness so they could plant
crops and raise cattle. The difference in the way each looked at nature
is reflected in the names given to land areas. The Indians used ecological
labels to describe how the land could be used. The colonists named
sections of land after their homeland. The difference between the Indians
and the Europeans was each loved the land differently. Even though the
Indians used the land differently, they nevertheless possessed it by the
right of first occupancy.(Roger Williams) Colonists rationalized their
conquest of New England by refusing to extend the rights of property to
the Indians. They both trivialized the ecology of Indian life and paved
the way for destroying it.
This chapter had quotes from many different people. Some recognized
the Indians had a different way of life and they respected it. Others
thrashed them for being lazy. In my personal opinion the colonist were
close minded for saying the Indians had no right to the land because
their way of life wasn't like their own.
Submitted by David Means
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Chapter Five
The native americans and early europeans had a majority of their
interaction due to trade. The europeans mostly traded metal goods and
weaponry in exchange for the skins and furs that the native americans
supplied them. It seems that not only did the early europeans introduce
new goods and trading tactics but they also brought with them a
dehibilitating factor to the native americans; disease. The native
americans for years had not been exposed to the dangerous pathogens and
in
turn did not have the necessary antibodies present to fight off the common
viruses that the europeans brought with them. It started with the most
populated areas and soon spread, mostly through trade to all of the native
americans. The widespread epidemic virtually wiped out the native
americans. In New England alone the number of native americans went from
well over 70,000 to below 12,000 in the first 75 years of the 17th
century. It seems as though not only was the native americans' health
destroyed but also their unity and spiritual/religous practices as well.
This breakdown coincided with the decline in the ecological conditions.
Many native americans blamed the spread of disease on the animals and in
turn lauched a holy war against them. The excessive hunting of the animals
led to a decline in their populations. The decline continued because the
native americans had attached status to the goods that they could receive
from the europeans in exchange for the animal skins. The native americans
at this point had become so dependent on trade that they knew nothing
else. With the animal supply depleted the they were forced to live in
stationary communities and look for other goods to trade. Living in
denser settlements, having lost most of their land one way or another and
employing the use of domesticated animals, the native americans were
living a life similar to that of the europeans.
The introduction of the europeans to North America led to the
destruction of the Native American culture, depopulation of many animals,
and drastic changes in the land. The europeans viewed wilderness as being
in the way and needing to cleared away. Only the native americans seemed
upset at the passing of many animal populations and made an attempt at
preserving their communities. Europeans didn't give it a second thought
except when their scarcity started to drive up their trading value. When
the beavers were gone from most of New England their dams would
deteriorate and give way. This meant that many of the ponds formed
because of the dams were now free to flow and left behind a very rich
topsoil, deep with nutrients. Many europeans found this soil perfect for
planting and this paved the way for new non-native american communities
to
be established. If the early europeans had been ecologically conscious I
wonder what we would be living like today.
Submitted by Sunshine Fisk
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Chapter Six
When the colonists settled in North America they cut down the
trees for several reasons. Some were necessary, like clearing fields for
agricultural purposes, but others were not so necessary like for the
reasons of trade and production of markets. Lumbering was much more
invloved with mercantile activity and trade, the colonists would use
lumber as merchandile commodities to repay their debts to financial
bankers.
Each tree species in the forest was sought for different purposes.
The white oak was used for timbers, planking of ships, and barrel staves
as well. Black oak was used for underwater portions of a ship's timbers
because of it's resistance to boring by tropical worms. Cedars and
chestnuts were used for pitch,turpentine,and rosin. White pine was used
for ship's mast. All this deforesting meant that the habitat's in which
the trees grew were subject to different stresses by colonial lumbering
activity. In the 1630's the largest concentration of commercial lumbering
for export was located in Maine and New Hampshire along the major rivers.
New England forests became the key resource for maintaining English naval
power.
This idea of deforesting carried elswhere when the sugar
plantations in the west Indies and wineries in Madieras needed barrels in
which to ship their commodities to European markets. Their voracious
consumption of lumber which was used as burning fuel left Atlantic and
carribean islands deforested. It seemed as if the forest had a value on
the market.
Farmers found that certain tree species were associated with
ceratain soils, some of which were better than others for agricultural
crops. The forest caused soils as much as soils caused forests.
The farmers benefited in some ways from deforesting. Without
trees or leaves the sun was able to reach the ground allowing opportunity
for more crops to grow. In some instances the farmers would allow the
trees to live and then burn them down producing better nutrients for the
soil and a opportunity for them to sell the ashes on the market.
The colonist's eyes seemed to be fixed upon the present and blind
to the future. There were many ecological effects because of the regional
deforesting. It brought substancial changes at ground level in ways
ecological communities experienced atmospheric phenomena,micro
climates,hydrology and soil mechanisms were altered by the change. The
land without the trees was hotter in the summer and colder in the winter
thus effecting the temperature of the soil. The lands in colonial NEw
England were sunnier,windier,hotter,cooler and drier and more wet than
they
had been in their former state.
It was not that the weather itself had changed by the clearing but
rather the way landscapes responded to the weather. Because there were no
roots or leaves to soak up the rainfall and precipitation the river
streams rised causing flooding and swampy areas. Also because of
deforestation their was a decrease in animal life.
Submitted by Nick Panarella
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