Does Columbus Deserve to Have a Holiday Named After

Him?“They…brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…THEY DO NOT BER ARMS, AND DO NOT KNOW THEM, FOR I SHOWED THEM A SWORD, THEY TOOK IT BY THE EDGE AND CUT THEMSELVES OF IGNORANCE. They would make fine servants…with fifty men we could subjugate [overpower] them and make them do whatever we want.”-Columbus’ ship’ log

Christopher Columbus

An inside look

Historiography• How historians “do” history

– Pick and choose among facts and their importance

– Taking sides• Conquerors/conquered; masters/slaves;

powerful/powerless– Ideas and beliefs

• Shapes beliefs of readers• Columbus’ story shows us how history gets

written

THE AMERICAS BEFORE COLUMBUS

• 75 MILLION INDIANS• 2,000 LANGUAGES• 100S OF CULTURES• NOMADS, EXPERT FARMERS• Iroquois

– shared ownership– Sexes shared power

• Did Europeans represent progress?

The Expedition• Funded by king & QUEEN OF SPAIN• Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria• Promise to them: gold & spices• Columbus’ benefits:

– 10 percent of profits– Governor of newly discovered

lands– Win title admiral of the

ocean sea

Child sailors• ~20/90 sailors were boys• Conditions

– Bare feet– Showers: buckets of seawater– Strong white wine at meals

• ~20/90 sailors were boys• Pages

– Cooked & scrubbed deck– TIMEKEEPERS*

TIMEKEEPERS• AMPOLLETTA: ½

HOUR GLASS FILLED WITH SAND

• When empty:– TURNED OVER– Ran to poop deck to

ring bell and pray

Prayers• 16 prayers by heart • One for every ½ hour of working day

Blessed be the hour God came to earth,Holy Mary who gave him birth,

And St. John who saw his worth.The guard is posted, The watchglass filling,

We’ll have a good voyage, if God be willing.

SIGHTING OF LAND• OCTOBER 12,1492: RODRIGO CRIES

OUT LAND– ISLAND IN THE BAHAMAS– Caribbean sea

• Columbus claimed reward instead

Money, Money, Money, Money! MONEY!

-Gold earrings-Took prisoners to lead to

gold-Sailed to several islands: *Hispaniola (Haiti and D.R.)-Sailed back to Spain -Left 39 sailors on island to look for gold

Columbus’ Report to Ferdinand and Isabella

• Claimed to have reached Asia• Called the Arawaks Indians• Full of riches

– “Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful…the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold…There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals.”

The Bargain• Monarchs gave

Columbus 17 ships and over 1,200 men

• Promised to return to Spain with “as much gold as they needed…and as many slaves as they ask”

Capturing Slaves• Indians began abandoning villages• Haiti

– Sailors left behind killed by Indians in battle• 1495: Slave raid: 500 hundred captives

– 200 Indians died on voyage– In Spain, sold by local church official

• Columbus: “Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go one sending all that slaves that can be sold.”

The Quest for Gold• Bits of gold dust in streams• Forced Indians to collect• Run-aways hunted with dogs and killed• Prisoners: hanged or burned to death• Mass suicide with poison• Haiti:

– Everyone over 13 ordered to collect– Refusals: had hands cut off and bled to

death

Haiti• Originally a quarter of a million

Indians• In two years, half were dead

– Murder and suicide• Enslaved on Spaniards’ estates• Overworked and mistreated• 1550: 500 Indians• 1650: 0

Population Decline• 1492: 10 million Indians lived north

of Mexico• Number reduced until fewer than a

million remained• Many died from diseases brought by

the whites

Bartolome de Las Casas• Young priest• Helped the Spanish

conquer Cuba• Gave up plantation• Spoke out against

Spanish cruelty

Account of Spanish Treatment

• “As for the newly born, they died early because their mothers, overworked and famished, had no milk to nurse them, and for this reason, while I was in Cuba, 7,000 children died in three months. Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation.”

To Be Continued…• Tragedy of Columbus and Arawaks

happened over and over• Cortes and Pizarro destroyed Aztecs

and Incas of South America• English settlers in Virginia and

Massachusetts did the same