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Howard Zinn's Story Of Columbus Through The Arawak

1148 Words5 Pages

Although they dressed well with various types of feather earrings and gold necklaces and earrings, they did not hold any value on gold or any other type of precious things they had. Whereas, the Spanish wanted gold because of money and this lead to them treating the Indians horribly so that they would become their slaves and help find them more gold to send back to their kingdom. The Arawak people were beaten to death, hung and endured other types of torture because the Spanish wanted more gold, but there was only a limited supply of gold on the land they were living on. Thus, this lead in many casualties of the Arawak people, and numerous Indians were later sold into slavery and brought to Spain, where they would endure even more hard labor …show more content…

In order to prove that the Arawak people were being abused by the Spaniards, Zinn uses sources from both Christopher Columbus and Bartolome De Las Casas. Zinn talks about Las Casas because he had the only information on what happened after Columbus met the Arawak people. One example that Las Casas states that Zinn brings up to display the cruelty of the Spanish people was “Las Casas tells how ‘two of these so-called Christians net two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys.’ ”.4 This quote alone gives the reader the proof that the Indians were mistreated horribly and that this changes how we should view Columbus and the Europeans in the New World. Thus, Zinn basically explains how numerous people’s viewpoints on Columbus are being warped into thinking Christopher Columbus was a heroic adventurer who did not cause any bloodshed, when in fact, he and many Spaniards killed and captured numerous Arawak people because of their greed for conquest, slavery, death, and the most precious of them all, …show more content…

I would give his story of Christopher Columbus and the New World because I felt he approached this topic fairly well and his sources were reliable and credible. I learned about Christopher Columbus in high school and was also exposed how Christopher Columbus is not the heroic adventurer we all make him to be and learned how he mistreated and imprisoned numerous Indians because of greed. I feel like this description made by Howard Zinn is accurate and I would agree with Zinn’s approach compared to other history books I have read. The reason I would agree with Zinn and his approach because I feel his approach accurately depicts what happened and by using sources from Christopher Columbus and Bartolome De Las Casas it helps showing two sides of what happened to the Indians. Bartolome takes on the side of the Indians, whereas Christopher Columbus takes on the side of the Spanish

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In the book Zinn, The author gives a point of view of Christopher Columbus that is usually not given. Most of the time the story of Christopher Columbus is told from a historian point of view. They usually tell you of his mission, and of the three ships that he takes in order to find gold and other new riches. Zinn informs us that he is not the hero that, that we all think that he is. It shows us that he tortured, abused, and overwhelmingly embarrasses the Arwark Indians.

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Zinn writes that the Spaniard's harsh treatment caused many Arawaks to die from slave labor and even suicide. The excerpt explains that the fifty thousand Arawaks and descendants were completely eliminated in a span of 135 years. Quotes from first-hand sources describe cruel Spanish greed further. Zinn reveals that Columbus took the credit for spotting land from another sailor. Writings from Columbus in the excerpt also reference the natives as naive and easily subjugated beings, exposing the sailor as a pompous and untrustworthy individual to the readers.

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The Spaniards gave them gifts of beads and red caps.(Doc 1) They believed these gifts would encourage the Natives to show them where the gold and other wealth was. However, as Columbus became more and more frustrated with the lack of help from the Arawaks, his treatment of them became increasingly worse. Eventually, all of the Arawaks were in slavery and were being worked to death. They were treated as sub-human and had no freedom.

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Las Casas viewed the natives as “docile and open to doctrine” (1) who presented themselves in a godly manner. Stating that he believes the Indians to be docile along with the fact that he saw they behaved in a godly fashion negates the notion that Las Casas felt threatened by the Indians. He believes the survivors endured the most difficult hardships in history. Las Casas carried a great respect for the natives and hurt for them and the injustice they had been

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818 Words | 4 Pages

However, the Natives had not done anything wrong to make the Spaniards act to cruel towards them. Las Casas wrote in great detail what the Spaniards did. He wrote of the destruction and slaughter that the Spanish brought to the Natives. Las Casas wrote about indians being thrown into pits of stakes. He wrote of children being torn away from their mothers and killed.

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2095 Words | 9 Pages

The viewpoint is wrong because it is written from the the point of view of the upper class and ignores millions Howard Zinn shows of the whole columbus not just the european side of history of him. We see the slatter not just the glory we see the human toll not just the conquest. We see the colonisation of the Americas and all the blood that was shredded for it. Columbus was even quoted in saying as soon as he got of the ship he was forcing the natives to tell him what they had and to give him all of their possessions. Howard zinn says history books as an explorer and the cause one of the world's worst genocides in history.

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Therefore, the history of Columbus in school textbooks doesn’t teach the true history, they teach us what they want us to believe. Unfortunately, the textbooks leave out tragically events that happened to numerous Native American tribes. Created events that never happened and left out important incidents that effected Native

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Loewen argues, “The authors of history textbooks have taken us on a trip of their own, away from the facts of history, into the realm of myth.” As historical events regress further into the past, writers may misinterpret facts that they may have studied. A story of discovery and friendship or a tale of conquest, murder, and greed, which of these are Christopher Columbus’ true stories? I believe the best method to teach American high school students about Christopher Columbus’ story is through historiography because historiography teaches students to compare and distinguish different outlooks from different writers’ point of views instead of just remembering misinterpreted facts. Historiography would guide and force students to study and learn history through a diverse set of historians who focused on the same subject and come to different conclusions.

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The first chapter of both A​People’s History of the United States (​Zinn, 1980) and​A Patriot’s History of the United States​(Schweikart and Allen, 2004) tells the story of the discovery of the New World. Beginning with the landing of Columbus in the Bahamas, these accounts are told from two separate perspectives. Zinn often refers to the telling of history as a tale between victims and executioners, saying that in the “inevitable taking of sides which comes from selection and emphasis in History” he prefers to stand on the side of the victim, whereas Schweikart and Allen tend to stand behind the executioner. Much of A​Patriot’s History​is spent arguing the accuracy of the number of natives murdered by invading European entities, attempting to minimize the blame reflected on these executioners.

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Howard Zinn takes the perspective that Christopher Columbus is not the hero that many people perceive him to be. He views him as a cruel and greedy leader who went to the Americas causes death in his wake for his unquenchable search for gold. Columbus took advantage of the Native Americans because at first they were "so naive and so free with their possessions"() by forcing them to collect gold for him else face the punishment of death. While Columbus may or may have not been as heartless as he is made out to be, he is not truly the one to blame for the harsh treatment of the natives on the Caribbean Islands. Almost every other European (at that time) that could have been in his position would have undoubtedly done the same things as Columbus.

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“Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”, chapter one of “A People’s History of the United States”, written by professor and historian Howard Zinn, concentrates on a different perspective of major events in American history. It begins with the native Bahamian tribe of Arawaks welcoming the Spanish to their shores with gifts and kindness, only then for the reader to be disturbed by a log from Columbus himself – “They willingly traded everything they owned… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” (Zinn pg.1) In the work, Zinn continues explaining the unnecessary evils Columbus and his men committed unto the unsuspecting natives.

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Argumentative Essay Outline I. Claim: Celebration of Columbus Day should be abolished due to Columbus’ harsh treatment toward the Native Americans and fallacies in his exploration. II. Sub-Claims: A) Reason: Columbus’ exploration was not meant to discover America but to conquer and exploit existed American civilizations.

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Inclusively, the professor explained that stories such as the flat earth, and the challenges Columbus faced while discovering America, only help to empower the concept of heroification. Surprisingly, Loewen explains that these and other erroneous stories are learned through history textbooks. Dr. Jendian explained that these misconceptions, keep students unaware of the real nature of history. According to Loewen (32), “The authors of history textbooks have taken us on a trip of their own, away from the facts of history, into the realm of myth.” As mentioned previously, Columbus is presented to us as a symbol of heroification, demonstrating how history textbooks contain errors about his real life.

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They could care less about how the Native Americans acquired the gold; all that mattered was that they had it, and the Spanish could take it. These differences in detail are just fragments of the overall beliefs both groups shared, which were barbarianism and inhumanity. Therefore these differences are far less significant than the

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“1491” Questions 1. Two scholars, Erikson and William Balée believe that almost all aspects of Native American life have been perceived wrong. Although some refuse to believe this, it has been proven to be the truth. Throughout Charles C. Mann’s article from The Atlantic, “1491”, he discusses three main points: how many things that are viewed as facts about the natives are actually not true, the dispute between the high and low counters, and the importance of the role disease played in the history of the Americas. When the term “Native American” is heard, the average person tends to often relate that to a savage hunter who tries to minimize their impact on their surrounding environment.

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