1) Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. “Columbus—Hero or Villain?.” History Today, vol. 42, May 1992, pp. 4-9.
Quote: “According to the first missionaries, members of columbus’ family were ‘robbing and destroying the land’ in their greed for gold”
Notes: Shows that the people close to Columbus were hungry for gold. However author goes on and says that Columbus wanted to take care of the Indians. “’the principle thing which you must do’ he wrote to his first deputy, ‘is to take much care of the Indians, that no ill nor harm may be done them, nor anything taken from them against their will, but rather they be honored and feel secure and so should have no cause to rebel.’’ He goes on to explain how Columbus was more of a road block to the other missionaries
Quote: “Columbus deserves the credit or blame only for what he actually did: which was to discover a route that permanently linked the shores of Atlantic…”
Notes: Columbus did what someone would have eventually done anyways. Everything that went wrong in the Americas after Columbus “found” it was out of his control
2) Freeland, Mark and Tink Tinker. “Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline.” Wicazo Sa Review, vol. 23, no. 1, Spring2008, pp. 25-50.
Quote: “That Columbus, or Crist0bal Colon (to give him his proper spanish name), was a slave trader is a matter of historical fact. He cut his nautical teeth sailing under a portugese flag engaged in the African slave trade a dozen years before 1492. When easy wealth in the form of gold proved not readily available in the Caribbean, Colon resumed his slave trading occupation by loading the holds of his ships with Indian human cargo headed for the slave market in Seville.”
Notes: This states that Columbus was a slave trader before America so it was easy for him to begin slave trading in the Americas. He was hungry to earn a mass amount of wealth. When he couldn’t find that wealth in gold he turned to slaves.
Quote: “Columbus was directly responsible for instituting this cycle of violence, murder, and slavery that resulted in the denial of adequate food, water, medicine, and cultural ceremonies to the Taino people. This cycle of violence, intentionally created to maximize the extraction of wealth from the islands, in combination with the epidemic diseases that were running rampant through the Taino population, together promoted the genocide of the Taino people.”
Notes: States that the way Columbus treated the people of Espanola directly lead into a genocide…even if that wasn’t what Columbus wanted to do. He states the “Disease alone” would not have created a genocide on this scale. Instead Columbus enslaved people on top of bringing disease. He Also deprived them of food and water.
3) Howarth, William. “Putting Columbus in His Place.” Southwest Review, vol. 77, no. 2/3, Mar. 1992, p. 153.
Quote: “Columbus took possession of Guanahani by reciting prayers, reading formal declarations, and giving ‘testimonials made there in writing.’These scribal rites concluded, he distributed red caps and glass beads to the natives, thinking they were “better . . . converted to our Holy Faith by love than force.” The Indians took these ‘things of small value’ and offered him parts of their world: parrots, cotton thread, tobacco, and corn.”
Notes: Speaks to Columbus’s ignorance. He took control with prayers the natives didn’t understand. And gave them stuff that had small value in return for items of large value from the natives. Includes quotes from Columbus journal
4) Hopkins, Dwight N. “Columbus, the Church, and Slave Religion.” Journal of Religious Thought, vol. 49, no. 2
Quote: For as much of you, Christopher Columbus, are going by our command, with some of our vessels and men, to discover and subdue some Islands and Continent in the ocean, and it is hoped that by God’s assistance, some of the said Islands and Continent in the ocean will be discovered and conquered by your means and conduct, therefore it is just and reasonable, that since you expose yourself to such danger to serve us, you should be rewarded for it.
Notes: This is a quote from queen Isabella and king Ferdinand telling Columbus he has the authority to conquer lands he comes across and that god will help him. The article goes on to say that Columbus may not be at fault for the entire slave trade that develops in the new world. The blame should also be but on the church and leadership of the time, because they were the ones who gave Columbus the okay.