Education in a Multicultural Society

 

Most of the Europeans who came to “The Americas;” North, South, Central, or the Caribbean, did so out of necessity. Most people are not “adventurous.” Most people have no desire to leave their families, friends, and possessions (however meager they may be), get on a tiny, leaky, scurvy-ridden boat whose Captain might also double as a pirate, whose navigator might aim for Boston and end up in Brazil, and whose crew might mutiny because they run out of rum. Or you might be “Shanghaied,” and be forced to become part of the crew. Your ship might be attacked by pirates, or captured by a rival nation. You might fall off the edge of the world, or be eaten by sea-monsters.

 

 And when you got to the “New World,” you might succumb to malaria, yellow fever; or simply starve to death, unless you figure out how to live off the land, immediamente. The people who were living there before your arrival might take issue with you dispossessing them, and kill you and the horse you rode in on. You might be bitten by any number of venomous snakes, or eaten by any number of fantastical beasts like alligators, crocodiles, anacondas, bears, pumas, or jaguars. 

 

 So no, it wasn’t “Hey honey, tell the kids we’re going to America next week, and start packing.” It was some kind of act of desperation. Running from the High Sheriff, a debt, a jealous husband, war, or famine was the reason most Europeans came to The Americas. Most likely, the only way you could afford passage for such a luxury as sailing across the Atlantic ocean was to indenture yourself to some wealthy “landowner,” and work off your debt as a servant, peon, or laborer. Or you could sign on as crew, and abandon ship at the first opportunity. That is, if you didn’t get caught up in a mutiny, act of piracy, fall off the rigging while working, fall overboard while drunk, or during a brawl, or during a drunken brawl, get sick and die (no ship’s doctor) from any number of contagious diseases, or sink during a storm, or run aground. 

 

No, it wasn’t until well into the 19th Century that it became relatively safe enough to make the voyage (especially “around the Horn”), and the America’s were pacified enough that you were relatively safe from the pissed-off locals. It should be noted that more “settlers” were killed by their fellow Europeans; range wars (not counting the Civil War), accidents, animal attacks, and exposure, than were killed by the pissed-off locals. But of course that wasn’t in the brochure. It never is, even today. No, it was some version of “Come to America and get rich, quick!” So, the first waves of non-refugees were hucksters, gamblers, craftsmen, and merchants. But mostly hucksters, as is evidenced by our present milieu, as well as by our Supreme Leader.....

 

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