The Candidates by Robert Munford give a major insight into the political climate of the late colonial period and early American republic and more specifically the southern planter class. The play follows Mr. Wou’dbe, a Virginia aristocrat running for election as a candidate for the local general assembly. Over the course of the play, Mr. Wou’dbe competes against far less capable or scrupulous opponents while discussing the values of democracy and good government. The candidate shows the strong enthusiasm felt by Americans towards democracy and civil participation in government during the lathe 18^th century. Mr. Wou’dbe is shown to be running not for personal gain or glory but rather as a reluctant man putting himself in the unconfutable position of power because he is the most worthy and capable man for the job. Mr. Wou’dbe’s worth is shown by his refusal to partake in such dirty tricks as paying for votes with liquor or trying flatter men he hardly knew like his opponent Sir John Toddy did. Rather than resorting to these tricks, Mr. Wou’dbe puts emphasis honesty and integrity. This attitude is not treated as naïve or fanciful but rather as genuine and expected of politicians. Through this, we see the strong emphasis that was put on civil participation in 18^th century America. Prior to independence self-government and participation, whether in the town meetings of the north or the more aristocratic parliamentary systems of the south were a major point of pride for Americans and a staple of American culture. During and after the revolution, this democratic tradition became a way for the new republic to define its own identity as a distinctive entity form the monarchies of Europe.

“Dialogue between an Englishman and  a Indian” took part in the mid 1700s when plays and theater were used primarily as a source to teach and train the art of speech. Plays include skills such as memorization, articulation and expression which helped serve as speaking exercises to help train the college students to become “more effective preachers… and public servants” (Smith) This is successful because performing in a play builds public speaking skills.  The play “Dialogue between an Englishman and Indian” depicts the Indians as savage and primitive where as the englishmen to be educated and more civilized. What I found surprising was that during this time period, some indians were allowed to participate in these plays yet alone attend college, considering historical conflict between the englishmen and indians. I found it ironic that within “Dialogue between an Englishman and an Indian” that it seemed to be the antagonist “englishman’s” role to reverse or bring the indians out of savagery. Would it not be that since Indians are taking part in plays theoretically speaking they are becoming “more intellectual” and “better men”?

After the war colleges had expanded their dramatic activities, introducing plays and dialogues to society. Not only are these works different than Rowlandson’s narrative in size, but also style. These works were written in old english dialect that provided informative short stories on different aspects of American society.

In A Dialogue Between an Englishman and an Indian the author, John Smith, acknowledges that Indians weren’t as different as other Europeans had claimed. Not all Indians were cruel savages. In fact, some Indians were educated by Puritan charity schools. In this dialogue the reader is shown the general mistreatment of Indians through a negative interaction between an Englishman and an Indian. Based on common misconceptions the Englishman discriminates against the Indian, calling the minority a ”vile, barbarous race!” (Smith, 7). Unaware of the Indian’s background, the Englishmen is proven wrong with his assumptions. In the Indian’s defense, he shows that the Spaniards also engaged in such acts of cruelty and highlights that the Christian’s temper had impaired his judgment. This dialogue reveals that the Indian was more educated than the Englishmen and that Indians were intelligent too. Generalizations of Indian populations depicted the community to be violent savages, however, in reality Indians and Europeans weren’t so different after all.

In The Candidates the reader is given a glimpse of politics back in the late colonial era in Virginia. At this point in history, the elections were more personal then nowadays. In the play the reader is shown how in the end, the worthiest candidates, Mr. Woud’be and Mr. Worthy, were elected. Instead of lying to gain votes and popularity, Mr. Woud’be was honest with his neighbors. Although at first the towns people weren’t fond of him, they quickly changed their opinions. Woud’be was a just character and rightful for the position. No matter what, he respected everyone equally. He even had mutual respect for his servant Ralpho. For example, in the beginning of the play Mr. Woud’be gave Ralph his old suit because he was “pleased with [Ralpho’s] diligence and fidelity, and [was] ever ready to reward it.”(Smith, 15). In general, elections should bring justice for the American people by electing the best candidate. The best candidate should have all the right characteristics for the job in order to help the people. Although this election was minuscule compared to other elections, it depicted the ideal voting system which brought justice for Virginia.

While “A Dialogue Between an Englishman and an Indian,” represents a minority view, it does highlight the power of colonialism through education. Deemed the “great permanent problem,” by President Chester A. Arthur, the question of the place of American Indians in British North America and eventually the United States often dominated policy. In Ebony and Ivy, Craig Wilder argues colonial and American officials sought to answer this question with assimilation. “A Dialogue” focuses on the benefits for both Indians and whites if the Englishman actively tried to teach the American Indians the habits of civilization.

Throughout “A Dialogue,” the Indian admits his people are “uncultivated and unpolished,” but argues the Englishmen have the ability to refine “his people” through education (7). The Indian in “A Dialogue” is the living embodiment of the success of civilizing the “savage” with schooling. The Indian in the short work convinces the Englishman of the benefits of improving American Indians and making them “good members of society” (8). However, what is indirectly argued, is being a good member of society required American Indians to abandon their traditional lifestyle and embrace the Anglo-culture of the people around them. Dartmouth College sought to ordain American Indians as ministers for them to cast off their Native roots and return to their tribes to teach other Indians to embrace assimilation.

In both A Dialogue Between An Englishman and an Indian, and The Candidate satire is used to create a commentary on different aspects of American society in the revolutionary era. A Dialogue Between An Englishman and an Indian the Englishman is blatantly less of an intellect than the Indian. This undoubtedly reflects the negative opinion of English during this period. The Englishman initially speaks with certainty of the poor mental capacity and disposition of Indians, but his position is completely reversed by the Indian after only a few lines of dialogue. This short piece shows the shifting of opinion in America about Indians from savages, to well monored and intelligent.

The Candidate expresses the belief that the American system of elections will naturally result in the worthiest candidate winning. Being the worthiest includes many traits, however the theme that was most prevalent was this idea of not wanting to serve as a representative but being obligated to. In the opening lines of the play Wou’dbe states “Must I again be subject to the humors of a fickle crowd? Must I again resign my reason, and be naught but what each voter pleases? Must I cajole, fawn, and wheedle, for a place that brings so little profit?”(14) Mr. Worthy is also reluctant to cast his name, and in the end these are the two who win a landslide victory.

Citizens of British North America, at least in 1762, were happy – even enthralled – by their new King, George III.  That seems to be the conclusion of Hopkinson’s “Dialogue and Ode.”  Perhaps it was not least because he was the first of the Hanoverian line of British kings actually born in England or perhaps is was simply because of their pride in being what they believed were the freest people in the freest nation in the world.  Nevertheless, as we know today, that sense of joy was short-lived.

Undoubtedly, the message in “A Dialogue Between an Englishman and an Indian” reflects a minority view of Indians at the time of the American Revolution.  Outside of an institution like Dartmouth (founded by Eleazar Wheelock, a Puritan minister, in 1769 as an expansion of his Charity School, which he used to educate Indians as ministers), most Americans would have considered Indians to simply be brutal and savage.  Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that in 1782, the antagonist in this short work was an “Englishman” – as if to suggest that they are responsible for not helping the Indian shed their “savage, cruel”(7) or “uncultivated and unpolished”(7) ways.

A Little Teatable Chitcat may be best summarized by the Latin epigraph at its beginning.

The Candidates or The Humours of a Virginia Election (“Humours” is best understood in this title as “Whims,” I think) combines a look into Southern society with a perspective about the late colonial/early national election process.  Deference to the supposed “natural aristocracy” was presumed to be the foundation of the democratic process but perhaps the play suggests that such a presumption was threatened by the democratic process itself – especially if Guzzle’s vote carried the same value as Mr. Worthy’s.  It is surprising how many issues, which remain important today, were addressed or implied in the brief play: the qualifications of candidates; whose interests are served; the power of political office; women’s role in the process; as well as campaigning, campaign promises, and getting voters to the polls.  The play is fiction (mythical?) but at least suggests that the democratic process was regarded with, arguably, a greater sense of respect and admiration than exists in our time.  Has 200+ years of democratic politics in the U.S. improved the process?

Denis Brennan

In Captivity and Restoration, Mary Rowlandson often looks to the Bible and God for the will to continue on. She sees the same restorative power in being around/near other Christians and very obviously values the presence of a Christian more than any other, especially a Native. Everything a Christian does is shed in a more positive light than when the Natives doing the same. Over the course of her captivity many Natives showed her a helping hand, offering food, water, shelter, and warmth. In these instances, Mary Rowlandson overwhelmingly attributes the generosity to an upper power, thanking God force again giving her strength to carry on, not just spiritually but by intervening and having supplies be given to her when she needed them most. She thinks of the Natives that do her favors more kindly than the other majority of the Natives, but still she does not nearly regard them in the same light as Christians. When her neighbors lent a helping hand to her husband and her to help buy her children back and furnish their home she describes the act with a specific word: “love” (Page 87.) The only people she ever mentions as having emotions this soft are Christians. I see this differentiation as being important because throughout the book there becomes an increasingly blurred line between what is “savage” and what is “civilized”, and this difference in her emotional attitudes towards Christians and toward Natives is the only distinction that remains strong for her at the end. She grew to enjoy or at least understand aspects of Native culture, explaining at one point that before she had some qualms against eating bear but when offered it in the wilderness found it to be tasty, and she had been a bit amazed at their ability to use every part of an animal’s body. When before she had seen the divide between savagery and civilized as clear, the more she was exposed to their ways the more her fews eased on the subject, except for the extent of their kindness in which Natives were outranked by the Christians’ “love” in the end.

In Captivity and Restoration, the author, Mary Rowlandson recounts her experience a captive of a group of Native American Indians after her settlement is raided. While the book touches on many themes such as the pain of captivity, the fear of the unknown, and the dichotomy between savagery and civilization, the theme of faith being challenged by adversity is especially poignant when taking into account the author’s background and the historical period the work was written in.

Mary Rowlandson was a Puritan woman living in 17^th century new England and thus her work is strongly influenced by religious themes. The Puritans were a protestant sect that felt that the church of England was too catholic and was becoming corrupted. One group of devout puritans who were expelled from England set up a colony in what is now Massachusetts. Mary’s Puritans faith is evident throughout the book as she discusses the importance of keeping her faith throughout her captivity. Mary seeks comfort in her bible from which she is reminded that god is always with her. This ties into the Puritan concept of predestination which states that god has a plan for all people that cannot be changed no matter what. As a result of this, Mary sees her captivity as a religious ordeal that will challenge her faith.

If the King Philip’s War did not take place, Mary Rowlandson could have just lived her live as a normal human being. Her captivity changed her life, as she was captured by the Indians for 11 weeks and then later released to her husband for 20 pounds. This is my first time to read a story written by a captured person about her story living with those who attacked her, and I am impressed by her change in attitude towards the Indians in terms of the boundary between civilization and wildness.  As a puritan woman, she considered the Indians as savages as she witnessed their behavior: They eat horse meat and bear meat, and they are no where close to decent civilizations. However, as time went by, she started to get confused, as she liked to eat the same food the Indians ate, and she was starting to build relationships with the Indians, too. I saw a change of Rowlandson’s attitude towards the Indians  from ” savage pagans” to finally she even considered one of her master’s wife as a friend. The book contained huge details about the Indians’ life, and there was to some extent equality existing in the tribes. Thanks to that, Rowlandson was able to live, and exchange some food for making clothes for them. When she made a hat for King Philip’s son, King Philip gave her dinner as exchange. I would say that Mary’s experience was tough, as her daughter died in her arms and she could not do anything about it. But during the time she was captured, I do not see any harsh treatments towards her, which was for me quite impressing.  It was a good experience for me to read a story, which records the first hand details of the Indians living at that time.

In Captivity and Restoration Mary Rowlandson writes about her experience as a prisoner under Native Americans. After being pulled away from her life and loved ones Mary faced a lot of challenges under captivity. For majority of the time Mary was freezing cold and starving. At one point Mary desperately ate horse liver and described that “for to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet” (28). Although at some points the Indians were protective and somewhat caring Mary describes the Indians as savages.

During her experience the reader is shown a negative depiction of the Indians. She considers the Indians as inferior, calling them “barbaric enemies” and “pagans.” Indian culture was considered foreign and it didn’t follow the social normality. But, with that being said Mary believes that Indians can be socially accepted in society if they behave the right way and assimilate into their customs. For example, years after captivity Mary sees the same Indian that threatened to take her life while she was a prisoner, just walking down the street in Boston “under the appearance of a friend Indian”(41).

Although the Indians weren’t as advanced as the colonist and practiced paganism, they were still human. Looking back at Mary’s journey the Indians only treated her as a prisoner. Mary’s depiction of the Indians was bias and twisted because she was held captive against her will.