smiling_bandit:
I have some big reservations about the accuracy of the Awful Columbus narrative. The source of a lot of the accusations against him seem to be questionable. I would not automatically believe people because they say a historical figure is rotten, especially given that the individual in question makes a very convenient target and he’s being saddled with a number of claims that turn him into a kind of meta-figure for a host of evils.
Do you actually know what the historical record indicates? There’s no real controversy that Columbus personally instituted the slave trade in the Americas, despite the fact that the Spanish monarchy had prohibited it. Here’s a post I wrote previously on the subject.
However, there’s no question that Columbus himself established the trade in Indian slaves to Europe, the effective slavery of the native population in Hispaniola, and the system of tribute in gold that he so hypocritically condemns Boabadilla for.
From Admiral of the Ocean Sea (published in 1942, so long before the era of political correctness), one of most authoritative biographies of Columbus, by Samuel Elliot Morrison, who for the most part was an admirer of Columbus (p. 486):
Columbus had suggested instituting a slave trade for Caribs, the enemies of the Tainos. When Ferdinand and Isabela told him not to do so, Columbus proceeded to enslave the Tainos themselves. contravening their orders:
Quote:
The following is a summary of pp. 491-493 in Admiral of the Ocean Sea :
In 1495, about 1500 captive Indians were brought to Isabela, the town Columbus had founded. About 500, the “best males and females,” were loaded on caravels for shipment to Spain. Columbus told the settlers they could help themselves to as many as they liked of those who were left. After this about 400 remained and were allowed to leave. Many of them were women with babies at the breast, who were so terrified of being captured again they abandoned their infants on the ground and fled. About two hundred of the captives sent to Spain died on the voyage, and were thrown into the sea. Most of the rest died after reaching Spain, so the trade turned out not to be very profitable.
Columbus then instituted a brutal system of tribute in gold or cotton which the Indians were obligated to pay. The tribute was almost impossible to pay even with brutal labor, so many Indians fled to the mountains where they died of starvation or took poison to end their misery. Morrison says “So the policy and acts of Columbus for which he alone was responsible began the depopulation of the terrestrial paradise* that was Hispaniola in 1492.”
*by Columbus’s own description.
The excuse is made that Columbus was just a man of his time, but the fact of the matter is that he was recognized as being unusually greedy, brutal, and heartless even by his contemporaries. He was also a hypocrite who piously trumpeted his Christian faith while promoting the most ghastly atrocities, as well as being a pathological liar (which even a cursory familiarity with his journals will confirm). You can quibble about exactly how old the women were who were enslaved and raped under the system Columbus initiated, but there can be little question that such rapes took place under Columbus’ rule and Columbus did nothing to discourage them.
Once again, I emphasize that these things were documented by Samuel Eliot Morrison, who on the most part was an admirer of Columbus.