WAS THE FUR TRADE A MEANS TO CONQUER NORTH AMERICA?
Was the fur trade used to conquer native lands? Perhaps, the best way to answer this question is to begin with a better understanding of the roles of native men and women in the Colonial Period. When Europeans arrived in the eastern part of North America, the natives from this region considered agriculture as “women’s work.” Although this must have appeared as an exploitation of their women, some anthropologists believe that women were the first to practice agriculture as people evolved into agrarian cultures. They believe that archaeological evidence indicates that this was an ancient reality in Europe.
For example, there are archaeologists, who have studied the skeletal remains of ancient French women. They have noted that their upper bodies were unnaturally developed, compared to even modern women athletes. Some believe that this was attributable to the hard work which these women were doing in agriculture. (Science, “Strong Women Did a Lot of the Heavy Lifting in Ancient Farming Societies,” Michael Price, Nov. 29, 2017)
Whether or not women had started the cultivation of crops in Europe, European men had participated in agriculture for thousands of years by the time they arrived in North America. At this point, the native men were still mining for materials for stone tools which was also hard work. Yet, these attitudes about agriculture being “women’s work” still persist in some native cultures. Having descended from farming families on both sides, I have trouble understanding why these men lacked an interest in agriculture.
MEN IN AGRICULTURE
My paternal grandfather loved to cultivate new fruits. He also propagated ornamental plants which he used to landscape many sites in south Florida in the early 1900s. I remember watching him propagating plants as a young child. Because I was so fascinated, he told me that he would name a plant after me. He passed away when I was very young, so I cherished this memory. Growing plants connects us with the earth. It is a daily reminder of new life. For my grandfather, it was exciting to create a new plant.
But, there is hard labor involved in tilling the earth to plant a crop. In other parts of the world, farmers had harnessed the power of animals to use plows to break the hard ground. Since men were the toolmakers, most likely it was a man who invented the plow. My maternal grandfather, who was a forest ranger, used a mule and a plow to till a large plot for his wife’s vegetable garden. He also cultivated a cash crop to sell at market. Yet, he spared my grandmother from breaking the hard ground.
MANKIND EVOLVED INTO AGRARIAN CULTURES
In many cultures, men were involved in early agriculture. They used ingenuity to invent new tools to lessen the burden of their hard work. Also, they used ingenuity to increase production by fertilizing and by irrigating crops. As they produced a greater harvest, their labor achieved more for their efforts.
Mankind evolved when they transitioned from nomadic hunter gatherers into agrarian cultures. Life became easier for men and women. By domesticating animals, men brought their needed protein close to home. This new lifestyle gave the men time to explore other areas of interest and to develop new skills. Compared to nomadic lifestyles, agrarian lifestyles were an easier way of life for women with infants and small children, as well. It is no wonder that this new lifestyle became so widespread.
HUNTING WAS STILL A VALUED PART OF LIFE FOR SOME
However, I do not mean that a desire to hunt should be left to the annals of history. My paternal grandfather loved to hunt and fish, as well, as grow plants. He even had a taxidermy business with his brother in his youth. My grandfather hunted down alligators in the swamps to make lamps. When I was a child, he had a pet alligator on his orange grove.
In historic times, some men still chose to make a living from hunting and trapping, but not their whole village. People were diversifying. They were not totally sustained by hunted game for food nor for clothing. To rely solely on game, instead of raising livestock, was a weight which was meant to be lifted from mankind’s shoulders.
FISHING IS STILL A WAY OF LIFE FOR SOME
Yet, I understand this desire to harvest food out of the wild. Throughout multiple generations, fishing was a recreational way of life for both male and female in my family and in many families in Florida. We enjoyed fishing. Our efforts produced fresher fish for our table, than we could have purchased. In my belief, God made men to excel at hunting and fishing, in order, to ensure our survival before we evolved into agrarian cultures.
In the case of commercial fisherman, they evolved to supply the fish for their communities, instead of just their family’s needs. Some preserved fish products became valuable exports which fueled local seaside economies. Christ called several commercial fishermen to become His disciples. (Matthew 4:19) However, you cannot raise ocean fish in landlocked ponds. Yet, animals can be contained in pens or in pastures to provide food for many.
TRIBAL MEN EXPLOITED BY EUROPEAN CROWNS
However, some tribal men of Eastern Colonial America were exploited by European Crowns to stay locked into their hunting past. Because of Europe’s demand for furs, hunting and trapping became big business for some of these men. These natives wanted forged tools, horses, and especially firearms, so they hunted as a business for trade. Yet, this business arrangement could never have been sustainable because of the magnitude of the trade.
At least two species were soon diminished to almost extinction: white tail deer and beavers. This caused some northern tribes to greatly expand their hunting territories, driving other native peoples from their homelands. These were the circumstances which began the Beaver Wars in the early 1600s. Rather than understand the wrong in over-hunting the land’s game, some native allies of the Dutch and English followed suit with their trading partners’ conquering examples.
So, some of the Native American men, who regarded the agriculture as “women’s work,” were exploited by some European monarchies. These monarchies never cared about the plight of the native women. Imagine the labor involved in having to plant an ample supply of corn with a digging stick or a stone hoe. Typically, each plant produced one ear of corn. Instead of exchanging ideas which could have set these women free, these monarchies exploited their native husbands for the fur trade, driving animals to extinction.
DUTCH AND BRITISH MONARCHIES ARMED THE NATIVES
Furthermore, these monarchies armed their trading partners and encouraged them to expand their hunting grounds at the expense of other native tribes. Those other tribes were driven out or were sold into slavery. Some were obviously slaughtered when they defended their land against these armed Native American allies of European monarchs. These other tribes were expendable to the British, to the Dutch, and to their indigenous warriors. Does anyone really think that this was about greed for animal skins?
DID SOME EUROPEAN MONARCHS USE NATIVES TO CONQUER?
Maybe some of Europe’s other monarchs were every bit as ruthless as Spanish monarchs, but they concealed their efforts through the fur trade. Perhaps, the statement, “The sun never sets on the British Empire,” is not so quaint, in retrospect. It is rather a proud acknowledgment of the conquering which the “British Empire” accomplished throughout the world in Colonial Times. However, the Dutch were the first to arm their trading partners in North America.
Yet, England also provided arms to their trading partners. By 1664, the British drove the Dutch out of North America, renaming New Amsterdam to New York. The Dutch had no army in place to defend their territory. They had relied solely on Native American allies to do their conquering.
BRITAIN'S NATIVE ALLIES
The British continued this Dutch exploitation of natives. The Dutch allies became British allies. Efforts spread on the expansion of hunting grounds throughout the Southeast, as well. Some natives were driven off of their lands, while others were sold as slaves at ports in Virginia and in South Carolina. Like the Iroquois had done in the North, other northern tribes claimed land as their hunting grounds in multiple states in the South.
Eventually, the French territory in North America would become the next target for the conquering British Empire. Sadly, George Washington began this war. He had gone to the region to protect his investment after he had purchased land in Ohio from the British. The British were selling large parcels of land to investors without having true rights to the land. The French, their native allies, and the British were all claiming this land. After seven years, the French and Indian War resulted in British dominance over North America.
COLONIZERS: A CIVILIZING INFLUENCE?
If any of these colonial powers had really cared about these native people, then why did they not teach them how to forge metal and to make a homestead? When you consider the scale of colonizing done by some European monarchies, it is really all that we needed to know. We can understand that they did not have any foreign people’s interests at heart. It was only about greed for land, wealth, and power. Europe’s colonizing monarchs surely did not bring a “civilizing influence” to this continent.
When British writers and historians accuse Americans of being greedy for land after they revolted against their Crown’s tyranny, they defy logic. Americans chose to be about life, instead of participating in continual wars with European powers. This is why the Americans expanded westward.
WARRING NATIVE ALLIES OF EUROPEAN MONARCHS
Almost two hundred years of European wars, using warring tribal men as allies, was enough for our people to understand our country’s need for security. Colonial powers had already laid claim to large territories of the coastal western part of North America. Our early presidents continued our expansion to protect all of our country’s people from European colonizers.
Americans also wished to recognize the equality of all people. All of the people were allowed to own land, not just an “elite” few, as it was in Europe. Our founders did away with the class system and allowed the working man to profit off of his own labor. There is no doubt that some of the aristocracy of Europe opportunistically came to America to greedily buy land after we had won our independence. Americans referred to them as speculators. However, these few did not define America’s people.
THE BRITISH CROWN DECEIVED THEIR NATIVE TRADING PARTNERS
In the case of the native tribes who served the European monarchs, they apparently did not understand that their land and their freedom had already been taken away from them. For example, the Crown had sold a large parcel of land in Kentucky to a North Carolina judge. He asked Daniel Boone to set up a settlement for him there. At the same time, the Shawnee felt that they owned this land.
Whichever tribes had originally inhabited this land were no longer there. The other tribes had been driven out by natives, expanding their hunting grounds for the fur trade. Obviously, these warring tribes made a mistake in trusting the ruthless Crown. After these tribes had conquered other natives’ lands for the Crown, the British were selling the lands to investors.
SOME ARE EAGER TO WAGE WARS
Some are just eager to wage war. Perhaps, some of these native allies just prided themselves in being warriors. Even today, some people seem to be driven by the desire to fight their next battle. European monarchs seemed to enjoy being at war throughout their history. They were often attempting to conquer others’ lands. While their monarchs sat in their palaces, their armies were their pawns on the battlefields.
If these royals could not care about their own people, then is it surprising that they would exploit indigenous people in foreign lands? What is shocking is that these monarchs claimed that their authority to do these things was from God. Followers of Christ have a proverb, “Live by the sword; die by the sword,” which was derived from Matthew 26:52.
WE ARE CALLED TO LIVE IN PEACE
However, we are called to live in peace, not to wage war. President George Washington made it a priority to teach new skills to the Native Americans, in order, to help them advance. President Thomas Jefferson made The Jefferson Bible to teach the native people about Christ’s positive messages of love and life.
And yet, the Native American women of the eastern part of our continent understood how to cultivate life. They produced crops from the earth; they embraced the children born to them. Maybe if some of their warring husbands would have helped their women with their crops, then they also would have enjoyed the pleasures of producing new life in a garden. If the monarchs of colonizing Europe would have cultivated a garden themselves, then maybe they too would have experienced what life is about. It is about creating life; it is not about warring against life.
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