Someone sent me a link to a speech by Michael J, Knowles of The Daily Wire and because of all the wrangling in recent years about Columbus I wondered if there was anything new one could learn about a man that has become a demon to many. And sure enough.
Mr. Knowles makes a strong case in Columbus defence in this article and references this interesting book by Carol Delaney.
Finding this book made me want to learn more about the author and I stumbled across this interview at the Catholic Education research Center and the following quotes stand in direct contrast to the view of Columbus held by many today:
Columbia: The popular view today is that Columbus is responsible for countless atrocities against the native peoples. In your opinion, is this a fair assessment?
Carol Delaney: No, not at all. The late 20th century brought a lot of critique about him from the perspective of the natives, and Columbus has become a symbol for everything that went wrong. But the more I read of his own writings and that of his contemporaries, my understanding of him totally changed. His relations with the natives tended to be benign. He liked the natives and found them to be very intelligent. He also described them as "natural Christians" because they had no other "sect," or false faith, and believed that they could easily become Christians if they had instruction.
Columbus strictly told the crew not to do things like murder or rape, and instead to treat the native people with respect. There are many examples in his writings where he gave instructions to this effect. Most of the time when injustices occurred, Columbus wasn't even there. There were terrible diseases that got communicated to the natives, but he can't be blamed for that.
A lot of the crew members didn't like all of the restrictions and rebelled. In his writings, Columbus notes that the crew assumed that they could have slaves, that they could pick gold off of the trees, and that they didn't have to work.
Columbia: What was Columbus' view toward slavery?
Carol Delaney: As far as I can tell, Columbus never had any slaves, nor did he intend to get slaves when he went across the ocean. There was no possibility of enslaving the Grand Khan and his people. And [Columbus] believed the natives would become subjects of the Spanish sovereigns.
When they later met a different group of natives, whom they believed to be cannibals, Columbus' brother sent some of these people back to Europe after their second voyage. It was considered morally acceptable at that time to enslave people who acted against their nature, with the hope that they would become good Christians. Slavery was common, even among people in the Caribbean. People ignore that fact and seem to think that Columbus instituted slavery.
Meanwhile, Bartolomé de Las Casas, an admirer of Columbus, is remembered for writing in defense of the Indians. But unlike Columbus, Las Casas owned slaves and operated encomiendas in the beginning. He didn't have a change of heart until long after Columbus' death, and even as late as the mid-16th century, he proposed slavery of African blacks as a substitute for the Indians.
I think I need to get a copy of her book.
