The arrival of Columbus in 1492 marked the beginning of the decline and destruction of the Arawaks people, the indigenous inhabitants of the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. Before Columbus, the Arawaks lived in harmony with nature, sustaining themselves through fishing, hunting, and agriculture (Zinn 196). They grew crops like maize, cassava, sweet potatoes, and peppers and fished the surrounding seas. The Arawaks were organized into chiefdoms and had well-developed cultural, spiritual, and artistic traditions, including music, dance, basket weaving, and making cloths (Zinn 25). However, with Columbus came the beginning of European conquest, slavery, exploitation, and diseases that decimated the Arawak population.
Within just a few decades of Columbus’ arrival, the once-thriving Arawak tribes were subjected to brutal forced labor in gold mining and large-scale plantation agriculture for the benefit of the Spanish colonizers. Columbus and other early colonists ruthlessly kidnapped and enslaved vast numbers of Arawak men, women, and children to work in the mines and fields in horrific conditions with little food, rest, or shelter (Zinn 588). They were worked to death for the greed of the colonizers. Those Arawaks who resisted or rebelled against this brutality were viciously punished, dismembered, or killed by Columbus and his men (Zinn 41). The Arawaks people came to call Columbus and his ruthless Spanish colonizers “the annihilators” due to their extreme violence and cruelty.
The Spanish colonizers also brought devastating diseases like smallpox, measles, malaria, and cholera to the isolated Arawaks, who had no immunity against them (Zinn 143). These unfamiliar diseases spread like wildfire through the Arawak tribes and killed off vast segments of the population. The population of Arawaks was high, and they lived on the island of Hispaniola when Columbus first arrived. However, through slavery, overwork, disease, and murder, the population declined drastically (Zinn 22). This catastrophic decline shattered Arawak’s society and culture.
The once peaceful and welcoming Arawak tribes soon realized Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors brought nothing but slavery, cruelty, exploitation, and death to their previously idyllic islands. Those few Arawaks who managed to survive the Spanish onslaught were forced to abandon their villages, social structures, cultural traditions, and harmonious way of life. Within just a few tragic decades, a thriving indigenous people who had lived sustainably on the islands for centuries were essentially wiped out by Columbus’ arrival and the evil he unleashed (Zinn 588). It was one of the worst genocides in human history.
Not only were the Arawaks decimated by slavery, disease, and murder at the hands of Columbus and the Spanish colonizers, but their rich cultural heritage was also systematically destroyed. The Spanish forced Christian baptisms, burned Arawak’s cultural artifacts, and forbade traditional rituals, languages, music, and even dances (Zinn 183). In just a few decades, Columbus and his fellow conquistadors not only killed off the Arawaks people but obliterated nearly all traces of their once vibrant, artistic culture. It was cultural genocide to go along with actual genocide.
Puritan Justifications for Violence Against Native Americans
The Puritans who settled in New England in the early 1600s relied on several justifications for their horrific violence against Native American tribes. Through a toxic mix of religious extremism, racism, cultural arrogance, and greed for land, the Puritans portrayed their brutal acts of genocide and conquest as righteous and divinely ordained (Zinn 14). First, the Puritans saw themselves as God’s chosen people on a divine mission to establish a pure, Christian colony in the new world. They considered Native American spirituality and customs to be evil pagan devil-worship that must be eradicated (Zinn 177). Puritan leaders frequently referred to the Native gods as devils that had to be defeated. This religious fanaticism meant they felt justified in forcibly converting, displacing, or killing Native people who resisted the adoption of Puritan religious doctrine.
In addition, the Puritans viewed themselves as racially superior to the indigenous tribes. They saw Natives as primitive, savage, and subhuman compared to white English Christians. This racist attitude normalized violence against Native Americans and made it easier for Puritans to seize their lands and destroy their villages, killing men, women, and children indiscriminately (Zinn 126). Connected to racism was the Puritans’ sense of cultural superiority. They felt the English way of life was vastly more civilized and advanced than Native cultures. The Puritans saw themselves as bringing enlightened Christian civilization to a wild, untamed landscape inhabited by backward heathens. This narrative of cultural supremacy also excused horrific cruelty against Native peoples.
The Puritans also had an unrelenting greed for land. They felt entitled to seize and settle fertile Native territory to put it to “proper” Christian agricultural use, regardless of who occupied it first. The fact that Native tribes lived on and used the land was considered irrelevant through the lens of Puritan cultural arrogance (Zinn 597). Violent Old Testament stories of conquest fed into the Puritans’ willingness to wage war against the tribes. Puritan preachers often invoked passages where God commanded the ancient Israelites to vanquish idol-worshippers and take their lands. These teachings incited settler violence against Natives in the name of fulfilling God’s will. When Native Americans rebelled against Puritan encroachment and launched raids against settlers, Puritan leaders called for unrestrained violent retaliation, framing it as necessary revenge ordained by God (Zinn 268). Even peaceful Native villages were brutally targeted under the justification of revenge for unrelated tribal raids.
In essence, the Puritans’ poisonous blend of religious fanaticism, racism, cultural hubris, and greed for territory led them to justify horrific cruelty and genocide against Native Americans. Their self-righteous bigotry allowed them to frame the dispossession and mass murder of indigenous people as God’s divine plan.
Works Cited
Zinn, H. A People’s History of the United States 1492—Present. Harper Collins E-books. (2006).
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