John Cabot in Cape Cod? and: "British" explorer?

[serendipitous journey]

Hi! I'm entering our American History memory into Anki, and have two questions/corrections about the question: English sailor who discovered Cape Cod:John Cabot.

First: why is he described as British? Maybe this could be changed to "European"? He was an Italian-born Venetian sailing with a patent from the English King Henry VII on a voyage largely financed by an Italian bank, I believe.

Second: can you give me a reference for his discovery of Cape Cod? I can only find that he may have gotten as far south as Maine, though most sources seem to suggest Newfoundland. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thank you for your help.

[Michael]

Hi! I'm entering our American History memory into Anki, and have two questions/corrections about the question: English sailor who discovered Cape Cod:John Cabot.

First: why is he described as British? Maybe this could be changed to "European"? He was an Italian-born Venetian sailing with a patent from the English King Henry VII on a voyage largely financed by an Italian bank, I believe.

Second: can you give me a reference for his discovery of Cape Cod? I can only find that he may have gotten as far south as Maine, though most sources seem to suggest Newfoundland. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thank you for your help.

Good morning,

Are you referring to the Guerber program? If so, you may have an older printing, as the "Fact to Know" about John Cabot is: "A Venetian captain who first planted the English flag on American soil" (Lesson 3). If you're talking about a different program, however, please let me know!

[serendipitous journey]

Good morning,

Are you referring to the Guerber program? If so, you may have an older printing, as the "Fact to Know" about John Cabot is: "A Venetian captain who first planted the English flag on American soil" (Lesson 3). If you're talking about a different program, however, please let me know!

Yes, that's what I meant -- good to know! So the flashcards have been updated too?

thanks so much!

ETA: to update, would the Teacher Manual + Cards be sufficient, or has the Student Guide changed too?

[Michael]

Yes, that's what I meant -- good to know! So the flashcards have been updated too?

thanks so much!

ETA: to update, would the Teacher Manual + Cards be sufficient, or has the Student Guide changed too?

I (and most of the office) are out of the office at conventions, and I don't know the answer to these questions off the top of my head, so I'll have to follow-up on Monday. Sorry for this delay!

[serendipitous journey]

I (and most of the office) are out of the office at conventions, and I don't know the answer to these questions off the top of my head, so I'll have to follow-up on Monday. Sorry for this delay!

No problem -- thanks for the prompt reply. I can wait 'til next week!

[Michael]

Good morning Ana,

Thank you again for your patience. As long as your current Student Guide for The Story of the Thirteen Colonies & the Great Republic is second edition, you can only replace the Teacher Guide and the products should work together. If your Student Guide is first edition, you will need to replace it as well.

The flashcards are actually for the 200 Questions program, whose drill question about John Cabot has not yet been updated.

HTH!

[serendipitous journey]

Michael, thanks so much! That explains it -- we are using the Guerber book, but the 200 Questions program for our memory & written work, since I need to keep American Studies short & sweet this year.

[serendipitous journey]

Okay! Some concerns with the 200 Questions/Flashcard program. My assumption is that all the questions and answers should make sense for all American students, no matter which continent(s) they consider ancestral, even (or especially) our own.

Other than the Giovanni Caboto/John Cabot card (which ought to say that he planted a flag in "the Americas" or "North America" or "Canada"; I don't think there's good evidence he ever got to the America that is the subject of American History).

* House of Burgesses = first form of representative government in a European colony but not in the Americas. The tribes have dibs on that, the best-documented (but not only) example being the League of the Iroquois/Five Nations which predated European contact and legislated issues of leadership, protocol, and civic life within member tribes, across the league, and with foreign tribes/nations.

* Jacques Cartier was the first European to explore the St. Lawrence, but not the first person to discover it. The river basin was pretty well settled (among others: the Iroquois again!) for a long time before he got there.

Some errors in Guerber:
The book begins with the strangest comment about the Americas being older than Europe. ???? This doesn't reflect our knowledge, though (see this source) it is probably what Guerber thought, based on theories to do with land strata and rates of evolutionary change. Not true geologically and not according to any current theory of human dispersal, including the literal Biblical one.

The chapter on Bacon's rebellion needs substantial revision in light of what is now known: a group of native peoples raided one plantation, as retribution for the owner's nonpayment for goods from the tribe, and the colonists responded with an counter-attack on the wrong tribe. Things escalated from there; but a consistent theme is the extremely violent treatment of native people at the hands of Bacon's group, including a particularly volatile component who were poor and being pushed off arable (at least, arable for tobacco, the dominant cash crop) land by wealthy landowners. Neither Bacon nor Berkeley are sympathetic characters, but the portrayal of this as some sort of move for independence by oppressed colonists who were being assaulted by natives as they minded their own business -- well, this is very wrong.

I hope this is helpful. It is great to have the flashcards and I'm just doing a little research on them as I put them into our Anki review system.

[pschaeffer]

Hi Ana,

Thanks for pointing out the issues with the flashcards. As I looked into your concerns, I was at first flummoxed because I couldn't find what you were referring to in our materials. It turns out that the Guerber text and the Guerber Study Guide do not have the issues with the House of Burgesses and Jacques Cartier. Then I realized you were talking about the flashcards. We will get those fixed.

Regarding the Guerber text, that book will no longer be asserting America is older than Europe (or the other way around). And as for Bacon's Rebellion, that chapter's focus is on the in-fighting happening between the British. It is not meant to impute blame on natives. The point is that some colonists felt their governor was not defending them properly and consequently fought a brief civil war, culminating in burning down their own city (Jamestown).

Have a great day,
Paul

[serendipitous journey]

Paul, thanks so much for your response and thoughtful consideration!

ETA: I realized that, in the Bacon chapter, I would be grateful to see two things addressed if possible. First, something addressing the poorly-aimed and disproportionate element of Bacon's attacks on natives, so that the culpability of the colonists comes across as well as their vulnerability.

Second, a sense of the relationship of the governor's response to the Treaty of Paris (and the aftermath of the French & Indian War): the crushing debt Britain had after the war combined with the British commitment to not stray westward of the Appalachians, and to leave that land for the peoples living on it. Maintaining peace with the natives thus was doubly important: it would avoid the loss of life & treasure in warfare, and it protected the lucrative the flow of furs from natives to the British colonies (providing much-needed revenue).

I realize these are subtle concepts, but anything in that direction would have the distinction of being more accurate and improving understanding of the Revolutionary War itself. And a better view of the native peoples emerges: more complex, and with an understanding that they did make contributions to the British nation & economy (but not, of course, directly to the tobacco growers).

thank you again!