After reading a ton of Indian legends, Cabeza de Vaca’s narrative, and some Puritan memoirs, I feel like I have gained a whole lot more knowledge of Pre-American colonization than I would have if we had just read some excerpts from an ordinary Norton anthology. There is way more authenticity in reading people’s stories than there could ever be in reading glimpses of what other anthologists took from those people’s stories. Also, reading Taylor’s American Colonies while keeping up with these other books was incredibly valuable. Being able to compare an anthologist’s recording to the “real stuff” sorta speak will hopefully give us some insight on what to pick for our own anthologies in a few weeks. As a class, most of us agreed that the Norton anthologies and Taylor’s book revealed some prejudice. Taylor’s American Colonies exemplified prejudice even more so because he included his own voice when writing about the supposed facts about Pre-America. Regardless, I think it is important for us to recognize the critiques we made about Taylor and the Norton anthologies so that we don’t end up making the same mistakes when we create our own anthologies. However, the most important question we need to ask ourselves is how can we differentiate our own research, and how can we, as young scholars, create an anthology that is justifiable to the authenticity of pure Carolina colonization?
First- we must read as much as we can find. And when we choose what to read, let us choose literature (or whatever we can find) that does not only represent the known people in history. In addition to that, I think we should choose a variety of different narratives from a variety of different classes of people. The goal as anthologists, I believe, is to avoid having biased diction at all costs. Also, compare and contrast is always useful. Perhaps a comparison of peer-reviewed anthologies and journals would help us figure out what to include and what not to include. By being critical of what we read, and open-minded of what we find in our research, I think we can truly bring together a more archival and valid perception of what the worlds surrounding pre-Carolina were really like.
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