I posted Tuesday rather than the normal Monday due to the "holiday" but Hopewell Thought is back, one day late.
Yesterday was Columbus Day. Of course, as a kid no one gives a second thought to the narrative that Columbus discovered America and certainly no one challenges the legitimacy of the holiday. As we age, however, we become aware of dissent and the complexities of history. It leaves one to wonder, "What's so bad about Columbus Day?"
Columbus was financed by the Queen and King of Spain to explore Asia (he actually made it only to the Caribbean). The goal: bring back gold to enrich the crown and the Catholic Church. Further, Columbus promised the king and queen he'd bring back as many slaves as they desired. One might reason that a mission birthed with such an evil end in mind must of necessity be filled with evil means. It was. Columbus' crew routinely roamed the islands of the Caribbean searching for gold, taking women and children as slaves for sex and labor. Finding that he could not send enough slaves back to Europe (too many died en route from the Caribbean), Columbus became more desperate to fill ships with gold to pay back the Crown's investment.
In the province of Cicao (in Haiti), all persons fourteen years of age and older were ordered to secure for the Spaniards a certain amount of Gold every three months. Those who were successful were given copper tokens to hand around their necks. Those who could not magically make enough gold appear had their hands cut off and bled to death. In that the only gold around was bits of dust from the streams, the task was impossible. In addition to murder, mass suicides became common in Haiti. Of the original 250,000 indigenous persons in Haiti, half were dead in two years from one thing or another. As the Spaniards began to assume total control, Bishop Bartolome de las Casas, a Catholic priest during that time, indicates that they also became more cruel. He wrote that the Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades."
In the years between 1494 and 1508, Las Casas wrote that over three million people in Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic) had perished from war, slavery and hard labor forced by the Spaniards. An astounding number, hardly believable. Las Casas did write of that astounding assertion, however, "Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it..." How can we, in good conscience, celebrate this? I have no answer.