Enslaving and massacring are only a couple of the horrid things Columbus did to the natives when he first arrived. He treated them and even his own crew very poorly. So much so that his own brother led a revolt against him. He enslaved thousands of natives and harshly punished them for every small mistake they made. Thousands of them were killed either by disease, by overworking or by the hands of Columbus and his men. All these reasons overcome and good legacy that Columbus would’ve left behind and made him villainous.
References:
Duke, Selwyn. “Killing Columbus: Seeking the “Undiscovery” of America.” New American (08856540) 33.19 (2017): 33-38. Academic Search Complete. Web.
By: Sahil
Abstract: This article talks about the issue of destroying and defacing Christopher Columbus’s legacy. Includes a brief personal background, and liberal mobs trying to denigrate his achievements.
Quotes and Observations: “his missteps and misconceptions are now sometimes used to portray him as an incompetent oaf”
Lopez, Barry. The Rediscover of North America. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990. Print. Pg. 15
By: Jon
Abstract: This excerpt talks about how Columbus took credit for first spotting land from one of his crew mates for monetary gain.
Quotes and Observations: “Columbus let it be known that he had earlier seen a light on the island… By his claim the commander would had to have seen the light at a distance of more than thirty miles over the curve of the Earth. Columbus thereby took for himself the lifetime pension promised the first man to sight land.”
Fuson, Robert H. The Log of Christopher Columbus. International Marine Publishing, 1992. Print.
By: Jon
Abstract: This excerpt from the 15th page of Christopher Columbus’ log translated to english talks about Christopher’s plans for the native population of the first island he arrived in.
Excerpt: “Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.”
Cohen, J.M. The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus. New York: Penguin, 1969. Print.
By: Jon
Abstract: This excerpt from a separate translation of Christopher Columbus’ memoir describes Columbus taking advantage of a native woman.
Excerpt: “While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the said Lord Admiral gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked—as was their custom. I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. But—to cut a long story short—I then took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears. Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought that she had been brought up in a school for whores.”
Stannard, David E. American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World. Oxford University Press, 1993. Print.
By: Jon
Abstract: This excerpt details Columbus’ lack of ability to control his crew.
Quotes and Observations: “What little restraint he had maintained over his men disappeared as he went through a lengthy period of recuperation. The troops went wild, stealing, killing, raping, and torturing natives, trying to force them to divulge the whereabouts of the imagined treasure-houses of gold”
Dillon, Sam. “Schools Growing Harsher In Scrutiny of Columbus.” New York Times. 12 October 1992. Print.
By: ChouChou
Note: “Columbus and his men seized Caribbean women as ‘sex slaves’, sent attack dogs to maul naked Indians, and disemboweled other natives who resisted conquest, the book says. During Columbus’s second voyage, the book reports, Columbus rounded up 1,500 Arawak Indians and shipped 500 to Spain, where 300 were sold into slavery. The other 200 died along the way, according to the book, which is published by the Monthly Review Press.” The evidence shows that Columbus injured a huge amount of Indians and destroyed their family. He only cared about his own will which was to occupy the land and spread out Christianity.
Abstract: The article talks about the evil things that Columbus did to Indians. It also discusses different people’s views toward Columbus, including the distain for Columbus’s atrocity.
http://www.pleasantoneducation.org/uploads/2/8/6/0/2860508/schools_growing_harsher_on_columbus.pdf
Johnson, Roger A. “TO CONQUER AND CONVERT: The Theological Tasks of The Voyages of Columbus.” An Interdisciplinary Journal 76.1 (1993): 17-28. Print.
By: ChouChou
Note: “No matter how many people he shipped to Spain for sale as slaves (with most dying on the way), no matter how many others were rounded up for the plantations (encomienda) of their Spanish masters, no matter how many tribes were conquered, no matter how many new lands were discovered, the wealth acquired was never sufficient to fund a Spanish armada to Jerusalem. Still, Columbus would not give up the task that he believed God had given him. So, in his Will, he stipulated that if the King would not use revenue from the Indies for the conquest of Jerusalem, Columbus’s son, Diego, ‘should go to Jerusalem alone, with the greatest force that he can muster.’” The evidence shows that Columbus was pushy and arbitrary. He did not listen to others’ suggestions and he was reckless as long as he could reach his original goals. Even though he opened up new routes and found the new land, he still could not effaced people’s memories of his inhumanity to the Native Americans.
Abstract: The article talks about the process of Columbus’s conquering the new land by showing lots of historical evidence. It would be a very convincing source to proof that Columbus was a villain because of his violence.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/41178617.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A9c9c9f49b5be56b8074f3c22c173d7e0
Finney, Mary Jo. “A Bumper Sticker, Columbus, and a Poem for Two Voices.” The Reading Teacher 57. 1 (2003): 74-78. Print.
By: ChouChou
Note: “We used to think Columbus discovered America but now we know that Native Americans were already in America, so Columbus had really taken what didn’t belong to him.” In the aspect of discovering the America, Columbus was a hero, but in the aspect of despoiling Native American’s property and even their life, Columbus was a villain.
Abstract: the article uses two perspectives to analyze Columbus and queries the correctness of only telling young children that Columbus is a hero. The article encourages readers to notice both sides of Columbus, rather than only focusing on his success of finding the Americas.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/20205321.pdf?refreqid=excelsior:55c645e3d16e09e0faa3a4630559b188
Crawford, Kimberly Ann. “What Students and Adults Are Allowed to Know About Christopher Columbus.” State University of New York. Web. 1 December 2009. <http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1502&context=ehd_theses>.
By: ChouChou
Note: “Any native caught without a copper token to show that he had met his quota, was tortured sometimes by having their hands cut off or killed. Those who fled were hunted down with dogs. Thousands of Tainos were driven to escape the Spaniard rule by poisoning themselves with a lethal plant root (Dyson, 1991). Unfortunately for Columbus, finding gold was showing to be an unprofitable means of wealth, he begun looking into another area to gain his wealth.” Columbus’s desires to Gold and wealth were tremendous and infinite. He could sacrifice anything in order to achieve the goal. He forced Indians to obey his rules, but he forgot that in fact Indians were the original residents of the land. Instead, he was a foreigner.
Abstract: The article talks about Columbus’s destructive impact to the Native Americans and records his process of looking for Gold, killing Indians, expelling the people who actually own the land, and so on.
http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1502&context=ehd_theses