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1.7.2: Reading and Review Questions

  • Page ID
    41838
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    1. How does Smith’s account of his experiences in the New World compare with the descriptions and assumptions of Columbus, Cabeza de Vaca, or Harriot?
    2. What grounds Smith’s assessment of events that he recounts, events like the men’s starving at the settlement? Does he ground his assessment in cause and effect? In Providence? Why, either way, do you think?
    3. Compare the way the Native Americans treat Smith after capturing him with the way his own men treat him before he leaves to follow the Council’s bidding. What, if anything, causes the differences, do you think?
    4. How does Smith use scientific knowledge against the Native Americans or for his own defense? Why?
    5. What introduction, if any, does Smith give to Pocahontas? Why? What purpose lies behind Smith’s probably inventing his rescue by Pocahontas? What role, if any, does it play in legitimizing a cultural as well as military conquest?

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