Columbus Day Resources
Watch this video to start you thinking
You can find background on Columbus Day here.
Read the following primary source excerpts:
from http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm
from http://www.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm
On October 12, 1492 (the first day he encountered the native people of the Americas), Columbus wrote in his journal: "They should be good servants .... I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses." These captives were later paraded through the streets of Barcelona and Seville when Columbus returned to Spain.
On October 14, 1492, Columbus wrote in his journal, "with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them."
In an April, 1493, letter to Luis de Santangel (a patron who helped fund the first voyage), Columbus made clear that the people he encountered had done nothing to deserve ill treatment. According to Columbus:
"they are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts." Nonetheless, later in the letter Columbus went on to say:
"their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need .... and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped."
"they are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts." Nonetheless, later in the letter Columbus went on to say:
"their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need .... and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped."
Beginning in 1514 Spanish conquerors adopted "the Requirement," an ultimatum in which Indians were forced to accept "the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world" or face persecution. If Indians did not immediately comply, the Requirement warned them:
"We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do all the harm and damage that we can."
Often the Requirement was read to Indians without translation, or in some cases even from ships before crew members landed to kill Indians and take slaves.
"We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do all the harm and damage that we can."
Often the Requirement was read to Indians without translation, or in some cases even from ships before crew members landed to kill Indians and take slaves.
Read the following introduction and excerpt from In Defense of the Indians by Bartolomé de las Casas written in 1550:
As Spain struggled in the mid 1500s to consolidate control over its New World possessions, a great debate erupted over the status and treatment of the Indians. At the heart of the debate lay the issue of whether Indians were civilized. An Aristotle treatise enshrined in Spanish law gave civilized peoples the right to wage war upon uncivilized peoples and take them as slaves. Consequently, assessments of Indians as barbarian benefited many Spanish settlers who sought both to impose their jurisdiction on the Indians and to take advantage of their labor. The Iberian scholar and theologian Juan Ines de Sepúlveda became a spokesperson for such interests. Sepúlveda faced stiff opposition. Bartolomé de las Casas, who had served several years as a bishop in Mexico, represented the other side of the debate. Arguing that Indians were civilized, the theologian sought on behalf of both Indians and priests outraged at the settlers' excesses to persuade the Spanish Crown to impose stricter controls on its colonists. The debate's outcome would determine and shape Spain's policy toward all of its New World inhabitants.
From the fact that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they are incapable of government and have to be ruled by others, except to be taught about the Catholic faith and to be admitted to the holy sacraments. They are not ignorant, inhuman, or bestial. Rather, long before they had heard the word Spaniard they had properly organized states, wisely ordered by excellent laws, religion, and custom. They cultivated friendship and, bound together in common fellowship, lived in populous cities in which they wisely administered the affairs of both peace and war justly and equitably, truly governed by laws that at very many points surpass ours, and could have won the admiration of the sages of Athens, as I will show in the second part of this Defense. Now if they are to be subjugated by war because they are ignorant of polished literature, let Sepúlveda hear Trogus Pompey: Nor could the Spaniards submit to the yoke of a conquered province until Caesar Augustus, after he had conquered the world, turned his victorious armies against them and organized that barbaric and wild people as a province, once he had led them by law to a more civilized way of life. Now see how he called the Spanish people barbaric and wild. I would like to hear Sepúlveda, in his cleverness, answer this question: Does he think that the war of the Romans against the Spanish was justified in order to free them from barbarism? And this question also: Did the Spanish wage an unjust war when they vigorously defended themselves against them?
Bartolomé de las Casas. 1974. "In Defense of the Indians." In Defense of the Indians. Edited and Translated by Stafford Poole. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.
Bartolomé de las Casas. 1974. "In Defense of the Indians." In Defense of the Indians. Edited and Translated by Stafford Poole. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press.
You can also read this interesting article about the dissonance between what children are traditionally taught in school and the historical research on Columbus and his era.
And compare the opinions of these two articles:
A good, brief summary of the holiday and controversy surrounding it: Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples' Day on NPR