This is the unvarnished truth that people do not want to hear. It is mans'
inhumanity to man.
Anita
>From: "Stephan A. Schwartz" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Slavery and Unanswered Questions
>Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:02:31 -0400
>
>The Caribs and Arawaks, were literally driven to extinction by slavery,
>particularly the early sex slavery practiced by the Spanish. The Arawak
>population in the West Indies was estimated to be about 2 to 3 million at
>first contact, and had been reduced to a few thousand by the early 16th
>century. By time that century had ended the island Arawak were extinct.
>This catastrophic mortality resulted from the introduction of European
>diseases,disruption of their system of sustainable agriculture and,
>equally, from Spanish brutality and attempts to enslave them. There were
>mass suicides amongst the Caribbean tribes, especially the Arawaks when it
>became clear to some tribal groups that slavery was their only option.
>Amongst some archaeologists, who specialize in the opening of the New
>World, the reason Columbus' diaries have never been released by the family
>is that they reveal that much of his fortune came from selling pubescent
>girls, and boys, to grandees in the Old World. The Arawaks girls were, by
>contemporaneous reports, very lovely.
>
>-- S
>
>
>On 14 Jun 2007, at 21:04, Anne Pemberton wrote:
>
>>Actually, according to the Jamestown Narratives, and what I am reading on
>>the Pennsylvania Colony and its relationship to the Indians, "saving" the
>>Indians had little to do with the goals of the colonies.
>>
>>Jamestown came to seek riches. When they discovered the riches in
>>tobacco, they wanted land. The Pennsylvania colonists came specifically
>>for land. Land, was the most desired commodity. The Natives were on the
>>land, so the notion of calling them savages, marginalizing them, making
>>them slaves in accordance with the Old Testament commands, and feebly
>>trying to Christianize them (then totally ignoring those who converted
>>when removal was the goal), were the initiatives involved. I'm not as
>>knowledgeable on the Massachusetts colony, but again, the goal seems to
>>have been to secure land, with a feeble intent to Christianize the
>>Indians, again with the colonists ignoring the Christians among the
>>Indians when removal became the goal.
>>
>>As soon as the Indians posed any resistance to the colonists intents, the
>>saying "The only good Indian is a dead Indian" spread throughout the
>>colony, whichever one it was.
>>
>>There seems to be little distinction among the Puritan colonists in
>>Massachusetts, the Quaker colonists in Pennsylvania, and the Corporate
>>colonists in Virginia. They all seemed to follow the same agenda. The
>>Indians as slaves had one advantage over the African slaves - they knew
>>the lay of the land better than their owners and could escape almost at
>>will. The Africans did not know their way around and were stuck in place.
>>
>>Anne
>>Anne Pemberton
>>[log in to unmask]
>>http://www.erols.com/apembert
>>http://www.educationalsynthesis.org
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