Cannibals in North America? Not so much, professor says

Dr. Kelly L. Watson, author of "Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World," (2015), lectured at William Woods last week. Watson argues the persistent rumors of cannibalism surrounding Native Americans played a role in establishing European superiority and Indian inferiority upon which imperial power by the immigrants was justified.
Dr. Kelly L. Watson, author of "Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World," (2015), lectured at William Woods last week. Watson argues the persistent rumors of cannibalism surrounding Native Americans played a role in establishing European superiority and Indian inferiority upon which imperial power by the immigrants was justified.

Were cannibals in North America a real thing, or were they just fake news?

A book, "Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World," studies the subject. Author, and associate professor of History at Avila University in Kansas City, Dr. Kelly Watson spoke at William Woods University last week to a group of students and community members.

"It's about how early Colonialists used the topic of cannibalism as fear," she said. "Cannibalism was intolerable to the colonial mindset."

There may be rare cases of humans becoming man eaters, but Watson said humans were never regularly on the menu.

She said Christopher Columbus knew if Caribbean people were classified as cannibals, it would justify their abuse and no one - at least not Europeans - would complain.

Those people were called the Carib. The word cannibal came from Carib, Watson said.

The Spanish called their Aztec enemies cannibals while they didn't accuse the Maya people - their friends - of being people eaters.

The English in America in particular used the fear of cannibalism as a way to justify their claim to a country already occupied by Native Americans, followed by Spanish and French Europeans. To further their occupational claims, they alleged Native Americans were cannibalistic, and therefore, worthy of little respect.

"English writers used accusations of cannibalism as justification of expansion," Watson said. "The English saw themselves as superior."

A popular genre erupted - captivity narratives - or stories depicting English immigrants captured, then rescued from the blood-thirsty "Indians." Some stories followed similar lines as Biblical stories. These stories of capture and rescue, including escape from captivity  - and finally redemption - were believed by new English immigrants.

European captivity narratives were popular in America and Europe from the 17th century until the close of the United States "frontier" late in the 19th century.

"There were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of captivity narratives," Watson said. "It was a popular genre and hot literature. It usually ended with redemption and restoration, proving that God favors the English."

Mary Rowlandson's memoir, "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson" (1682), was a classic example of the genre and America's first best seller. Another popular captivity narrative from the late 17th century is Cotton Mather's "The Captivity of Hannah Dustin" (169697), a famous captivity narrative set during King William's War between the French and New Englanders.

"He was never actually captured, but he described it," Watson said.

Hannah, a helpless child, was supposedly captured and about to be roasted for dinner when two people and a dog arrived in a canoe and in the nick of time. The two new arrivals offered to trade the dog for Hannah, and everyone (but, presumably, the dog) lived happily ever after.

Another man, Thomas Brown, wrote in 1759 he'd escaped capture during the French-Indian War with a friend, and the friend died. Brown was weak and starving and just about to eat his friend when a partridge and two pigeons suddenly arrived and he was able to kill them with little effort.

"The English also accused the French of cannibalism," Watson added, saying they hated the Catholic French who celebrate the Eucharist - figuratively eating the bread which becomes the body of Christ.

"Protestants accused the Catholics of literally eating Christ," she said.

In the English-led Jamestown colony, the winter of 1609-10 was known to have been one of starvation. George Percy wrote in 1610 that people dug up "dead corpses out of graves to eat them."

One man said he killed his wife to eat her. But, his claim was proven to be fake news.

"His house (was) searched, and parts of her mangled body were discovered. To excuse himself, he said that his wife died, that he hid her to satisfy his hunger, and that he fed daily upon her. Upon this, his house was again searched, where they found a good quantity of meal, oatmeal, beans and peas. He thereupon was arraigned, confessed the murder, and was burned for his horrible villainy." the Virginia Company of London said.

Capt. John Smith, who had his own captivity narrative and rescue by the maiden Pocahontas, also wrote about cannibalism at Jamestown in 1624.

"John Smith was not there that winter - but he writes like he was," she said.

Jonathan Dickinson, in 1699, wrote about a shipwreck off the Florida coast and how he was held by bloodthirsty savages. In reality, they escorted him to a nearby Spanish village, warning him another group of Native Americans nearby were the actual cannibals.

All of these stories, Watson said, illustrate how people can manipulate others with false narratives used to justify suspicious methods.

"The English men prove their manliness as conquerors of the wilderness and protectors of domesticity," Watson said. "There was the assumption that there is one right way, and it's the English way."

Other cultures also used hints of cannibalism to justify inhumanity.

"The Spanish, the French, the Greeks and Romans, even the Crusaders accused (others) of cannibalism," she added. "It's the worst thing a human can do."

But it's just not a routine human behavior, she added.

"There is no documentation that any society has used cannibalism as a regular practice," she said.