The Enslaving Of Columbus: A Whole New World

The letter Christopher Columbus wrote back to Spain to report his findings in the New World sparked intrigued me and sparked my imagination. Why I have been so absorbed in this letter I can not explain. This letter is supposed to be about describing an unknown land, a land that has not been seen by anyone besides the natives, but it seems that there is more to it than that. Columbus is known in elementary schools as the man who found the New World, and is regarded as a hero. To the contrary, historians who have done more research on Columbus say that he was driven by fame and fortune and that he was tyrannical in his ways with the indigenous peoples of the places that he came to find. I feel that the contradictory tones Columbus uses

All my life, I have been hearing about Christopher Columbus. Since little, first, my family talking about him, then in school learning about him. I really thought he was a hero. The way they teach you about him in grammar school or middle school makes you think he really is a hero. But later on, doing research on him, looking for what he really did, where did he came from etc. I realize that he is not a hero. There are many reasons why people think he is good as well there are many reasons why they think he is bad. Personally I think Columbus is a villain, he did a lot of bad things that most people don’t know a bout. However if they know them, it would make them think a little bit deeper if Columbus is the Hero

One thing being disease, such as malaria. Christopher Columbus introduced the “Columbian Exchange”, an exchange of pathogens, causing 90% of people to die off. The Portuguese captured many Tupi Indians and either killed them off or they died of the flu. Since the native people had never been exposed to disease before, they would die off quickly once exposed. When they began digging for gold and silver in North America, they needed people to do the work for them. They could not enslave the indigenous people anymore since they had mostly died off, so they brought over 9 million African American slaves who had already been exposed to disease and had a likely chance of surviving. The Portuguese also used slaves to produce sugar. There were 4-5 million slaves brought to Brazil over a span of about 200 years. Many Portuguese men mated with the slaves, and this is the reason that Brazil’s population is so diverse today. There was such a demand for slaves that they become a major part of trade. The Europeans were trading slaves as well as trading fish, grain, and cheap textiles to feed and clothe the slaves. The reason for this is that the slaves mainly produced sugar, cotton and tobacco, not their own food or textiles. This concept is termed “peculiar

The first Africans brought in more or less as an experiment. Africans tended to share the same resistance to diseases that Europeans did, they were familiar with the types of farming and crops, and they tolerated the hot conditions well. Originally, it was a matter of a ship going to western Africa and attempting to capture or trade for enough slaves to fill their holds. As the trade increased, it was impossible for the Europeans to capture enough slaves on their own. They began to work with African agents, that tribal leaders captured prisoners from other tribes to sell to the Europeans. This became a big and efficient business, carrying millions to the west. These goods from Europe were carried to Africa and traded for slaves. When England decided to abolish slavery, this cut into the trade but did not end it. Other, European nations were still deriving profits, and had no interest in stopping. Changing technology, damaged ecosystems, increase of 'home grown' slaves all cut down on the demand

The colonies of 1916 were desperate for labor and manpower, to grow enough food to stay alive since agriculture and craftwork were key to the development of the colonies. The colonists thought about forcing the Indians to work for them, but they were massively outnumbered (Zinn). Initially, indentured white servants were used for labor, but there was not a sufficient quantity of them and the amount of work was increasing. Fearing a servant revolt, the colonies resorted to using African slaves rather than the servants. They relied on the slaves to work on the plantations or mine precious metals.

As the Europeans set up colonies in America, they brought the plantation ideas with them, which led to the need for labor hence they tried to enslave the Native Americans to work in their mines and fields. The Native Americans were prone to diseases hence most of them died as a result of diseases and overworking. Apart from the ones who died, a number rebelled and formed alliances forcing the Europeans to look for other sources of labor. They started to acquire African slaves due to a number of reasons: The African slaves were more stronger and immune to a number of diseases in Europe and America; the Africans had no friends and family in America hence it was not easy for them to form alliances or to escape; they provided a permanent and a cheap source of labor; and most of them had worked on farms before in their

Europeans started enslaving American’s because they wanted cheap labors. Enslaved American’s usually work as domestic servants or on plantation. Black, white and non-muslin slaves had some rights. Some were slaves were generals and had the right to have their own slaves. Native slaves started dying of diseases and the America’s need replacements . “Slaves were only imported to the New World in great numbers after other sources of labor proved inadequate”.The demand for cheap labors were so high and many started dying so they looked to Africa for assistance because Europe and Africa were so close that most Africans already built and immunity to Europeans diseases and they most likely wouldn’t try runaway because the did not have knowledge of America’s . This is when the buying and selling of Africans to work in America’s started it is known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. “Africans dominated both the buying and selling of slaves into the Atlantic slave trade”.African merchants would also capture African slaves. There were people who disagree with it and tried stop it but the people who agree with it started making secret trade routes to transport slaves. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean was very dangerous and many Africans died. Merchants brutally beat Africans on the ships. Some enslaved Africans rebelled while others just accepted conditions. They suffered from low

Among the more notorious dimensions of the age of exploration and colonization is the impact which this massive wave of maritime transmigration would have on the indigenous populations of those locations where European settlers made landfall. And perhaps no historical figure is as emblematic of this impact than Christopher Columbus, who in his ambition to bring gold, spices and cotton home from the lands he believed to be the West Indies, would help to set off one of the most complete genocides in human history. As the text by McKay et al (2003) demonstrates, Columbus approached the natives that he encountered in the Caribbean with a sense of European superiority that would come to define colonialism and to justify its attendant ethnic cleansing. Indeed, the perspective offered by Columbus is that of a conqueror establishing dominance over a people quite vulnerable to subordination.

Colonies in the United States were being settled by 1,000’s of colonists in the late 1500’s early 1600’s. Colonists found very quickly that it would not be easy to settle new land thousands of miles away from there home countries. As the colonists became settled it was clear that more workers were needed; so slaves, and indentured servants were brought to do the work. Although, slaves and indentured servants were used for similar purposes there were many differences in how the work was performed, the relationship with their masters, and the culture.

Through their friendly trade relations, Europeans quickly introduced the idea of slaves as a commodity, along with an international market for labor to newly developed plantation economies, eventually

Eventually, a vast number of Natives Americans died of foreign diseases brought to the New World by the Europeans, simply because they lacked the immunity. The Native Americans proved hard to control and this played a critical role in how slavery became racialized in the years to come. Another form of laborers used were indentured servants. These people, usually young men, came into the New World to work and were promised to be given land when they finished their term of service. This process worked for some time, but starting becoming unpopular when wealthy landowners became egotistical. They did not expect the indentured servants to live long enough to finish their time of servitude and as a result did not want to given them a part of their land. Thus, the Europeans had to find a way to obtain free and immensely forced labor.

The people of the New World were thrust into a hindrance as their previous slaves, the natives, were dying off because of European diseases and indentures were few once they learned that moving to the New World as an indenture surely meant an early death. In the 1400s, Portugal had begun to search for gold in Africa as the slaves began to die off and become far-fetched in the New World. When Portugal decided that they would use Africans as slaves, that changed everything for everyone. The plantation owners in the New World now had a more reliable work force that was cheap and would keep their profits flowing. Africans were soon being captured and sent over to the Atlantic world, be the hundreds, to become slaves, leaving their homeland

Although the legitimate origination of slavery is still highly unknown and inscrutable, this concept had become very common worldwide some time after the accidental discovery of the New World (most commonly known as “America” today) by Christopher Columbus of Italy during the Age of Exploration. After he had enslaved the Native Americans (encomienda) at the New World, the Native American population soon went into a gradual decline. Soon, Columbus began the Triangle/Columbian Exchange Trade (a trading system of goods and resources between the New World and the Old World, which consisted of Europe, Africa, and Asia), and in that particular trade system included the importation of a myriad of Africans from Africa, to the New World as a result

Do heros commit crimes like rape, grand theft, and torture? Usually heros are good people and are nice and caring to people but columbus did not do that. He did the opposite. Do you know any heroes that do that?. Columbus was clearly a Villain because he tortured people, killed people, and kicked them out of their land. One reason why columbus was a villain was that he showed no respect at all for the native americans. He said that native americans would only be good as slaves. For instance in document 2 columbus said “native americans would make fine servants”. He clearly tortured people because in document three it says “they rode the backs of indians if they were in a hurry or were carried on hammocks by indians running in relays… they

With new settlements, the Europeans needed a strong workforce to establish production. Native Americans were utilized initially; however, too many died from disease. Seemingly stronger, Africans were brought in to build provide the needed labor. Colonies needed to be built up to last and turn a profit. The back-breaking work often required for certain crops, initially sugarcane and later cotton, was forced on the Africans, as it was thought they could handle the hard work.