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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