I am an American, and I think what America stands for is a powerful and moving ideal. So, what you are about to read is not a tirade against my home. It's only that I feel that there is a fair amount of red on the American record. Thanks.
The Vikings and the American colonists are separated by almost eight hundred years, and thousands of miles. Irregardless of the centuries and oceans that divide them, these two peoples committed almost identical crimes against their fellow man. Yet the Vikings never bore a name as stained as the Americans. The celebrated American satirist Mark Twain once declared that “History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme” (Twain). In other words, although the Americans’ mistreatment of other races was reminiscent of the Vikings’, the Vikings were able to escape ignominy. But if both did similar things and performed similar terrors on native inhabitants, why are there so few comparisons drawn between these two historically significant peoples? Why are the Vikings so revered, so exalted for their brutality? Why are the Vikings not criticised for their crimes against their fellow man? Surely their atrocities were far bloodier and numerous than their American counterparts. Could it be merely the years that separate them, the fact that the Americans are so much closer in our collective memory?
No, the centuries do not dim the horrors the Vikings inflicted upon the Celts, the Britons, and others. Nor do the the decades lessen the atrocities the Americans have committed against the Native Americans and the African Americans. Yet historians are still apt to write of the Vikings with varying levels of admiration.
The greatest stain on American history is that left by slavery, finally abolished by the Civil War. Yet slavery is barely a smudge on the Vikings’, and is often left unmentioned. Although both peoples enslaved fellow human beings, Vikings are rarely censured for it. Then again, the Vikings only ever enslaved prisoners of war; they never labeled, never defined, any one race as a slave race. Those that were enslaved were not chosen for race, or any other determining characteristic. Slavery was a secondary part of war, never a necessary part of life for the Vikings. It was a means for the victor to assert his power of the conquered; it was never an act of selfishness. The subjugated people were seen as inferior because they were on the losing side of war, not because of the skin they were born with. The victory was acknowledged as that of the Viking over the Celt, never that of a Viking over an animal. It was a victory because one man had triumphed over another. It was not so for the white-supremacists and plantation owners, who refused to recognize the hypocrisy of their ways. These so-called Christians tried to use the bible as justification for oppressing their black brothers, holding forth holier-than-thou piety in one hand and a whip in the other. Never mind that the Old Testament declares that "He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:16). For the Americans, an entire economy was built upon the backs of black slaves and upon that, a mirage of gleaming manors and genteel indolence and stolen contentment. The pain of a thousand whippings would be sooner forgotten than the pain of belonging to a people kept down by a label.
Vikings and American colonists alike overthrew native inhabitants to set up their own colonies. But again, the Vikings are lauded for their ingenuity and spirit of survival; the Americans will be forever remembered as the foreigners that ousted the once proud nations of the Native Americans, an older people than they. In murdering and burning and raping, the Vikings committed crimes against the physical person; in deceiving and lying and destroying, the Americans committed crimes against the human spirit. The Vikings did not lie, for there was no honor in it. It was honorable to kill, but never to lie to your fallen foe (Njal’s Saga), for killing affects the body, but lies affect the soul. After their initial slaughter of farmers and monks, the Northmen often settled the lands alongside the conquered, mixing bloodlines and assimilating peacefully to form enduring societies. Countries like Britain, Scotland, and Ireland give testament to this, for a significant portion of their population is of Nordic descent. The Vikings were feared in these lands for their Blitzkrieg-like attack tactics, yet the fact that they left a genetic handprint behind speaks volumes. It is generally accepted that the Vikings often settled conquered lands and became farmers (Clements). The American colonists, however, refused to allow Native Americans a chance for assimilation, preferring to keep them isolated. American expansionists and advocates of Manifest Destiny forced upon the Native Americans centuries of prolonged struggle. To ease their own guilty consciences, many such as President Andrew Jackson tried to justify their actions by claiming that removing the American Indians to rocky, infertile lands to the West was a natural means of cultural preservation. Whereas the Vikings made their intent clear, the Americans resorted to subterfuge, promising protection and peace to the wearied natives. Their lies were mostly intended to assure themselves of their own purity and piety, and to avoid admitting that their selfishness were destroying innocent people by the thousands. The Vikings knew and accepted the atrocity of their actions, choosing simply not to care.
There is also the difference in their cultural identity, their historical character. The Vikings are known badasses hardened by struggle and weather. The Americans, on the other hand, were less equipped to handle adversity. That’s not to say that the lot of them were a bunch of pansies , but as seen in the example of Jamestown, many believed themselves to be above work. They were reluctant at best to get their hands dirty. It is difficult to respect a people that would kill while keeping their gloves white and their shirts starched. The Vikings never stooped to such vanity. Maybe it’s because the Vikings understood death and killing better than the Americans did. While rifles and pistols allowed the holder to shoot at targets from a distance, the northmen had no choice but to thrust metal through flesh and bone. For a moment, the blade forges a connection, a give-and-receive bond. Then it is pulled out and cleansed with earth. The bullet is so cold, so impersonal. But at least it allowed the Americans to keep their gloves clean.
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