On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 10:07 PM, Erika L. Rich <elr...@ruwebby.com> wrote:
> > Wow. I missed an awesome thread! > > I had to do a paper on Columbus for school last year. I had to use "primary > sources, originating from Harvard's library." some of these primary sources > were indeed log books, diaries, books, written by Columbus himself, his > friends, or fellow ship-mates, explorers. > I spent weeks on it. Read many books, papers, etc. Even a biography written > by Mildred Stapely Byne around the turn of the 1900s that wasn't a > crucifixion of his life, but wasn't adoration either. I do recommend it > though if any one is curious. > > Cool, everyone else seems to get history from a comic strip. > > To answer Sam's question as to why they would brag about the rape of a > native women? Are you really asking that Sam? Really? Why do men still, to > this day, gather in bars and brag about some hooker they had, or some girl > they bagged/dated (I've overheard these conversation in my lifetime), or > even convicts in jail, bragging about a chick they raped (these I haven't > of course, they are merely second hand accounts of what happens during > conversations in jail). > > Bagging a hooker != rape > Because they have always done it Sam. It really is not that far fetched of > an idea. > > I don't know anyone that does and I'm a man. > As for slavery: Yes. Columbus was nothing but a product of his time. > Slavery was not new, nor was it particularly offensive AT THAT TIME ... but > the actual humanity of it sucked. To land on a foreign island, and simply > believe that he had the right to just capture people willy nilly and make > then do whatever he wanted, take whatever he wanted, was just gross. > > But Columbus never claimed he conquered lands and took slaves. He was looking fora slave trade route and that sucks, but the people he took as slaves were prisoners of war for killing the people he left behind. Not saying I support him, just adding context. Now. Murdered millions. Perhaps an inflated number. I have no idea how many > actual people were killed ... but here's some food for thought. > > The WHOLE quote from his shipmate, Michele de Cuneo, in a letter from The > Second Voyage, October 28, 1495 he describes how he and his men have just > attacked a small party of Caribs, and one of the Spaniards has been shot > with an arrow. > > "We captured this canoe with all the men. One cannibal was wounded by a > lance blow and thinking him dead we left him in the sea. Suddenly we saw > him begin to swim away; therefore we caught him and with a long hook pulled > him aboard where we cut off his head with an axe. We sent the other > Cannibals together with the two slaves to Spain. When I was in the boat, I > took a beautiful Cannibal girl and the admiral gave her to me. Having her > in my room and she being naked as is their custom, I began to want to amuse > myself with her. Since I wanted to have my way with her and she was not > willing, she worked me over so badly with her nails that I wished I had > never begun. To get to the end of the story, seeing how things were going, > I got a rope and tied her up so tightly thatshe made unheard of cries which > you wouldn't have believed. At the end, we got along so well that, let me > tell you, it seemed she had studied at a school for whores. The admiral > named the cape on that island the cape of the Arrow for the man who was > killed by the arrow." > > Who was in charge? Why Columbus of course. Did people get murdered?! Yes. > > Cannibals? OK, I get they wouldn't have been eaten if they avoided the place but it does tend to piss of the visitors. > > ALSO: > Columbus' men and animals brought devastating diseases ashore to the Island > Indians, and eventually the mainland, changing the landscape of the > American Indian culture forever. The American Indians had lived in a > pristine land where few diseases existed. Hundreds of thousands of > people, dead. > > Now did Columbus think that far ahead and realize "Hey, I'm a carrier of > great diseases!" ... well of course not. Can't send him to jail for that. > Does he get blamed?! Yes. > > I read the disease came from later explorer caused by Columbus "discovering" new land to explore/conquer Another quote: > > "Columbus and his men could be a very cruel group of people. Under the > guise of subduing the enemy, they would engage in horrific activities. At > times, they would make an example of an Indian by cutting his hands off and > tying them around his neck, telling him to then go and share the message. > Other times they would go and massacre an entire village, unconcerned with > the age of their victims." > > (de las Casas) > > I would love to see a source for that because I looked and can only find it on left wing blogs. Casas turned against slavery while in Cuba nine years after Columbus died. I doubt that quote is real or about Christopher Columbus. > Another quote from de las Casas "Endless TestimoniesÂ… prove the mild and > pacific temperament of the nativesÂ… But our work was so exasperate, ravage, > kill, mangle and destroy; > > small wonder, then, if they tried to kill one of us now and thenÂ… The > admiral, it is true was blind as those who came after him, and he was so > anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable crimes against the > Indians > . > " > > Bottom line... Columbus may have "ushered in a new era of exploration" but > he was far from a man to be revered, admired or even put on a pedestal. > It's not just the slavery, or just the raping and pillaging... it's his > entire life as a whole. His entire demeanor and how he so arrogantly sought > after wealth and notoriety. > > His entire history deserves to be looked at and studied from all angles ... > not just from a point of reverence. What it is all about is that > Columbus's voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism > and economic competition growing between developing nation states seeking > riches from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. > > Yes, I agree. He was no saint. But this new version of history doesn't add up. He's guilty of telling people about a new place, like they wouldn't have found it eventually anyway. But I don't think he was the pure evil that Oatmeal wants us to think. > And he never even MADE landfall on mainland North America. > > Why is that important? Maybe that's why we don't call it North Co;umbus > Ugh > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:367854 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
