1) You probably know that President Reagan established a commission back in 1985 for the observance of the Quincentennial. It was a little embarrassing though, because he appointed this man Goudie, who was a Florida real estate developer-- Who else? A natural choice. He resigned last year because some House subcommittee was investigating him. (Howard Zinn, Confronting Columbus 1)
2) Bosch claims, 'The systematic persecution of the Indians started after Columbus' legacy was over. Saying Columbus was responsible for genocide is like saying Jesus Christ is responsible for the Inquisition.' (Hal Lipper, "Seeks His Destiny" 20)
3) Slave labor was also instituted almost as soon as Colon [Columbus] succeeded in pacifying the island . . . Before the decade was over Colon installed it formally through the institution known as encomienda, a new variant of an old Castilian principle by which the Governor could give, or "commend," certain Indians to various colonists [for tribute or forced labor], in return for which the masters' only obligation was to provide their charges with instructions on becoming good Christians. (Kirkpatrick Sale 155)
4) The founding action of Christian imperialism is a christening. Such a christening entails the cancellation of the native name--the erasure of the alien, perhaps demonic, identity--and hence a kind of making new; it is at once an exorcism, an appropriation, and a gift. (Stephen Greenblatt 83)
5) I am compelled, therefore, to come to this view of the world: I have found that it does not have the kind of sphericity described by the authorities, but that it has the shape of a pear, which is all very round, except at the stem, which is rather prominent, or that it is as if one had a very round ball, on one part of which something like a woman's teat were placed, this part with the stem being the uppermost and nearest to the sky, lying below the equinoctial line in this ocean sea, at the end of the East. (Christopher Columbus, Journals and Other Documents 286)
6) We often speak about American history as if it were something real. But I do not believe in American history: I only believe in American histories. But histories are written constructions of those in possession of the word, and I object to the way history has been constructed, sanitized, and glorified. (Benjamin Alire Saenz, Without Discovery 137)
7) Denying the natives their possession of speech, the Admiral appropriates language and with it all linguistic representation of the new reality, to the exclusion of any alternative interpretation. In consequence, the first portrayal of America--the representation contained in Columbus's writings--is presented as objective and comprehensive rather than as subjective and biased. Columbus grants himself the exclusive right to create America where its inhabitants are concerned, following the parameters of his literary model, and he presents the resulting fiction as if its accuracy were undeniable. (Beatriz Bodmer 36)
8) America is a continent and cannot be monopolized by a single country like the United States. America has no borders. It actually runs from Alaska to the Patagonia. "America" and "American" are terms that for too long have been misused to dominate, exclude, suppress, and eradicate the historical consciousness of the Native people of this continent. America did not begin five hundred years ago. America has fantastic and very deep cultural roots that go back many thousand years of continuous history. (Francisco X. Alarcon, Without Discovery 33)
9) Hatuey [a cacique] finally responded, "And the baptized, where do they go after death?"
"To heaven," said the friar.
Hatvey: "And the Spanish, where do they go?"
Friar: "If baptized, of course, they go to Heaven."
"So the Spaniards go to Heaven,' Hatuey responded. 'Then I don't want to go there. Don't baptize me. I prefer to go to Hell." (Jose Barreiro, Confronting Columbus 42)
10) I, he says, in order that they would be friendly to us--because I recognized that they were people who would be better freed [from error] and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force--to some of them I gave red caps, and glass beads which they put on their chests, and many other things of small value, in which they took so much pleasure and became so much our friends that it was a marvel. (Columbus qtd. by De Las Casas 65)
11) After we had rested for several days in our settlement it seemed to the Lord Admiral that it was time to put into execution his desire to search for gold, which was the main reason he had started on so great a voyage full of so many dangers, as we shall see more completely in the end. (Michele de Cueno, Journals and Other Documents 214)
12) The colonizing powers recognized almost from the beginning that African slaves were the only possible remedy for the labor shortages that plagued their New World dominions; slaves mined the precious metals and harvested the sugar, indigo and tobacco that made colonization worthwhile. (Tom Morganthau 67)
13) As you can see, textbooks get the date right, and the names of the ships. Most of the rest that they tell us is untrustworthy. Many aspects of Columbus's life remains a mystery. He claimed to be from Genoa, Italy, and there is evidence that he was. There is also evidence that he wasn't: Columbus didn't seem to be able to write in Italian, even when writing to people in Genoa. Some historians believe he was Jewish, a converso, or convert to Christianity, probably from Spain. (Spain was pressuring its Jews to convert to Christianity or leave the country). He may have been a Genoese Jew. Still other historians claim he was from Corsica, Portugal, or elsewhere. (James Loewen 45)
