Columbus, Puritans, and American Indians. The Myth of America

Transcription

1 Columbus, Puritans, and American Indians The Myth of America

2 Middle Ages: The World at that : Black Plague kills 30% of European population yikes Largely spread by rats and the fleas that live on these rats Time

3 Europe in the 1400 s 1400: European rulers begin to commission even bigger guns and learned to mount them on ships. Europe was at war constantly, leading to an arms race. (sound familiar?)

4 The Great Columbus 1492: Columbus lands in what we now call America, and also in the Caribbean. Encounters natives in both places. Prime motivation for trip: wealth for Spanish

5 Columbus The Great Cont He introduced two phenomenons that revolutionized race relations and transformed our world: 1. The taking of land, wealth, and labor from native peoples, leading to their near extermination 2. The transatlantic slave trade, which created a racial underclass

6 Back to Spain Columbus kidnapped men and took them with him back to Spain 7 or 8 made it to Spain alive These men and the exotic riches Columbus returned with persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to give supplies for a second trip: 17 ships, cannons, men, crossbows, guns, cavalry, and attack dogs.

7 1493: Columbus returns to Haiti He and his troops demand food, gold, and spun cotton He gives his troops native women to rape Natives who rebelled had their ears and nose cut off When the Natives as a whole resisted, Columbus saw an excuse to make war

8 1495: Show Me The Money!!! Columbus still hasn t made any money: one of his prime motivators Fulfills financial obligations to Spain by enacting slave raid, and sets out to conquer Arawak Indians

9 1496 Stats: Estimated Haitian population: 3 Million

10 1499: Eureka! Gold at last! Columbus finds gold in Haiti lots of gold. Great for Columbus Not so great for the trade on the Gold Coast of Africa. Their supply of gold was no match for the huge amounts in Haiti.

11 Continued This robbed Africa of their most valuable export, and now they only had one thing still as valuable on the market: people. (All of this lead to the trans-atlantic slave trade, initiated by Columbus, Jr. in 1505)

12 1500: What a guy Columbus writes to a friend: One hundred castellanoes (Spanish currency) are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are in demand.

13 1502: Anyone want a colony? Spain makes encomienda system official policy in Haiti. Basically means that they gave over ownership of entire Indian villages to Spanish colonists How would you feel if a wealthy person from another country came and took over your city? What aspects of your life do you think might change?

14 1505: Junior is here Columbus s son initiates trans- Atlantic slave trade

15 1516: Population Problem? Estimated Haitian Indian Population: 12,000. After intensive slave trading, the Bahamas are reported as deserted

16 1519: You gotta fight, for your right -Beastie Boys First large-scale slave revolt Haitian Indians and Africans Lasts 11 years! Of course the slaves don t win

17 : 400 years Epidemics 93 epidemics (an outbreak of a contagious disease that spreads rapidly and widely) among Native Americans. Where do you think most of these diseases came from? Think back to the Black Plague

18 1526: Something else you should know about native Americans First non-native settlers in U.S. were African slaves left in South Carolina after Spaniards abandoned a settlement attempt. So, what race were the first settlers of America?

19 Meanwhile: How is Haiti doing? 1542: Estimated Haitian population: : Estimated Haitian population: 0 The results of Columbus s decisions have led to an extinction of a native people This doesn t mean that no one lives on Haiti; it means that there is no one left with 100% original Haitian blood

20 Late 1500 s The first Pilgrims (one who travels far, or in strange lands, to visit some holy place or shrine as a devotee) settle in New Mexico They are Spaniards who practice the Jewish faith, who want to escape religious persecution

21 America in the early 1600s 1607: London sends settlers to Jamestown, Virginia 1609: Settlers forsake farming for random gold searches -Not finding anything, they begin hiring themselves out to Indian families as servants -Many die of exposure and starvation. In extreme cases, settlers dig up bodies of Indians and resort to cannibalism to stay alive YUMMY!

22 Early 1600 s continued 1610: Estimated Native American population: 14 million 1614: Squanto and two dozen other Indians captured and sold into slavery in Spain. Squanto escapes, flees Spain, and talks a ship captain into taking him home on his next voyage to Cape Cod. Way to go Squanto!

23 1617-A Year of Disease British and French fisherman transmit disease to Indians living in New England. Native Americans had no immunity to these new diseases from another continent.

24 Europe at that time people built up LOTS of immunity to diseases -A filthy place -humans had close contact with animals domesticated on farms -germs from animals, crowded cities, trash and human refuse in the streets exposed people to diseases, to which they became immune

25 Late 1617 When Squanto makes it back to his home, he finds that his entire tribe has been wiped out by these new diseases

26 % of coastal New England Indians are dead (approx. 13 million) Puritans, aka Pilgrims, plunder Indian homes, fields, etc.

27 1620 Continued Pilgrims that hijacked the Mayflower land in New England The Indians they meet are the survivors of several disintegrated tribes, and now live as one

28 1623: Betrayal -Puritans/Pilgrims use chemical warfare against tribes -offering a toast to eternal friendship -all present members of the tribe (about 200) drop dead of poison.

29 Betrayal Continued 1634: Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony sees plagues (epidemics) suffered by Indians and miraculous -proclaims that God wants the Puritans to have this land! 1731: France ships virtually entire Natchez Nation in chains to West Indies 1823: Chief Justice John Marshall says Cherokee Indians had certain rights to their land in Georgia due to occupancy

30 Betrayal Continued but that whites had supreme rights owing to their discovery. How do you occupy land without having previously discovered it? Native Americans are being constantly victimized

31 Results: 1840: Estimated Native American population is 2 million 1880: Estimated Native American population is 250,000 It is rare to find someone is our country that is 100% Native American As recent as 1991: Miners and loggers introduce European diseases to Yanomama tribe in Brazil, killing 25% of their total population