Oppression

It was interesting to read in Chapter 11: Expansion and Removal, that some Cherokees owned slaves. Cherokee was considered to be part of the “Five Civilized Tribes”. In the side bar, there is a tongue-in-cheek comment about what civilized means if this tribe did indeed own slaves just like the colonists did. It made me think of why the colonists came to America. One of the reasons why is because they were being oppressed and they were seeking religious freedom. After arriving in the “new land” the oppressed became oppressors by owning slaves and pushing the American Indian tribes further west. This made me think of Paulo Freire and his thoughts on how “the oppressed become the oppressor”. I think that this can be true in some cases and learning that some Cherokee owned slaves illustrates this point. In order to not be controlled, do we, as people, try to control others? Is it a case of one-upping and “keeping up with the Joneses” that leads us down this behavior? Is it fear that things will be taken away from us so, in order to keep things, we do as our oppressors do and find a group weaker than ourselves to take advantage of?