Christopher Columbus' Journal (1492) [SOA]

Christopher Columbus, sailing with the support of the Spanish crown,

provided one of the first, and most widely disseminated, European accounts
of an encounter with native people in the Atlantic after his arrival on the
island of Hispaniola.
Thursday 11 October 1492
He [sometimes Columbus refers to himself in the third person] steered westsouthwest. They saw petrels and a green bulrush near the ship. The men of
the caravel Pinta saw a cane and a stick, and took on board another small
stick
SOURCE: E. G. Bourne, ed., The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot (New York,
1906).
that appeared to have been worked with iron, and a piece of cane, and other
vegetation originating on land, and a small plank. With these signs
everyone breathed more easily and cheered up.
At two hours after midnight the land appeared, from which they were about
two leagues distant. They hauled down all the sails and kept only the treo,
which is the mainsail without bonnets, and jogged on and off, passing time
until daylight Friday, when they reached an islet of the Lucayas, which was
called Guanaham in the language of the Indians. Soon they saw naked
people; and the Admiral went ashore in the armed launch, and Martin Alonso
Pinzon and his brother Vicente Anes, who was captain of the Nia.
The Admiral brought out the royal banner and the captains two flags with the
green cross, which the Admiral carried on all the ships as a standard, with an
F and a Y, and over each letter a crown, one on one side and the other on the
other. Thus put ashore they saw very green trees and many ponds and fruits
of various kinds. The Admiral called to the two captains and to the others
who had jumped ashore and to Rodrigo Descobedo, the escrivano of the
whole fleet, and to Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia; and he said that they should
be witnesses that, in the presence of all, he would take, as in fact he did
take, possession of the said island for the king and for the queen his lords,
making the declarations that were required, and which at more length are
contained in the testimonials made there in writing. Soon many people of the
island gathered there.
What follows are the very words of the Admiral in his book about his first
voyage to, and discovery of, these Indies, he says, in order that they would
be friendly to usbecause I recognized that they were people who would be
better freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by forceto 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. Later they came swimming
to the ships' launches where we were and brought us parrots and cotton
thread in balls and javelins and many other things, and they traded them to
us for other things which we gave them, such as small glass beads and bells.
In sum, they took everything and gave of what they had very willingly. But it
seemed to me that they were a people very poor in everything. All of them
go around as naked as their mothers bore them; and the women also,
although I did not see more than one quite young girl. And all those that I
saw were young people, for none did I see of more than 30 years of age.
They are very well formed, with handsome bodies and good faces. Their hair
coarsealmost like the tail of a horseand short. They wear their hair down
over their eyebrows except for a little in the back which they wear long and
never cut. Some of them paint themselves with black, and they are of the
color of the Canarians, neither black nor white; and some of them paint
themselves with white, and some of them with red, and some of them with
whatever they find. And some of them paint their faces, and some of them
the whole body, and some of them only the eyes, and some of them only the
nose. They do not carry arms nor are they acquainted with them, because I
showed them swords and they took them by the edge and through ignorance
cut themselves. They have no iron.
Teir javelins are shafts without iron and some of them have at the end a fish
tooth. All of them alike are of good-sized stature and carry themselves well.
I saw some who had marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to
them asking what they were; and they showed me how people from other
islands nearby came there and tried to take them, and how they defended
themselves; and I believed and believe thatthey come here from tierra
firme to take them captive. They should be good and intelligent servants, for
I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe
that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they
had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six
of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak
I was attentive and labored to find out if there was any gold; and I saw
that some of them wore a little piece hung in a hole that they have in their
noses. And by signs I was able to understand that, going to the south or
rounding the island to the south, there was there a king who had large
vessels of it and had very much gold. This island is quite big and very flat
and with very green trees and much water and a very large lake in the
middle and without any mountains; and all of it so green that it is a pleasure
to look at it. And these people are very gentle, and because of their desire to
have some of our things and believing that nothing will be given to them
without their giving something, and not having anything, they take what they
can and then throw themselves into the water to swim.

1. Visualizing the New World - 15061510

Pages 1 to 16

Once Columbus and other voyagers into the western Atlantic submitted
reports that were circulated by print and word-of-mouth, artists provided
equally widely disseminated imaginings based on those reports. In this group
of illustrations, Europeans are shown meeting indigenous peoples of the New
World. Within these illustrations, we can see not only representations based
on facts in the report, but attitudes of both the explorers and the interpreting
artists about the level of civilization they believed native New World
communities had in comparison to Europeans.
Early in the sixteenth century, the explorer Amerigo Vespucci wrote a letter
detailing his experiences in the New World (a place to which he gave his
nameAmerica). The letter was translated and published throughout Europe,
accompanied by illustrations that were often drawn by artists who
themselves had never seen the newly discovered Western Hemisphere. How
did the artists whose work is reproduced here imagine the Indians? What
differences between the Indians and the Europeans did they think important?
Did the various artists portray a consistent view of the Native Americans?
From what sources in the history of European culture might these illustrators
have drawn in their effort to understand Native Americans?
1

The British Library, London; bottom right: John Carter Brown Library, Brown
University.

3. Bartolom De Las Casas Defends the Indians 1552 Pages 4 to 16

Bartolome de Las Casas Defends the Indians (1552). [AS]
Dominican Friar Bartolome de Las Casas served as a missionary to the island
of Hispaniola. The publication of his The Destruction of the Indies
challenged not only the notion of forced conversion but the enslavement of
native peoples in Spain's New World colonies. His arguments for humane
treatment not only involved him in debates in print with men like Juan Gines
de Sepulveda, but formed the basis for the English created idea of the Black
Legend. The Black Legend insisted that Spain was a cruel colonizing
country in contrast with England policies and practices in the Atlantic World.
The Dominican friar Bartolom de Las Casas was Seplveda's great
antagonist in the debates of 15501551 at Valladolid. As a young man, Las
Casas had sailed with one of the first Spanish expeditions to the West Indies
in 1502. A humane, sensitive priest, he was soon repelled by his
countrymen's treatment of the native peoples of the New World. He
eventually became bishop of Guatemala and devoted himself to reforming
Spanish colonial policies, for which he was recognized as the Protector of

the Indians. His vivid and polemical account The Destruction of the Indies
did much to spread the Black Legend of Spain's brutal behavior in the New
Worlda
3

Bartolom de Las Casas, Thirty Very Judicial Propositions (1552).

legend not without substance, and eagerly exploited by the rival English.
How are his views of the Indians different from those of Sepulveda? What
ideas did the two debaters share?
Now if we shall have shown that among our Indians of the western and
southern shores (granting that we call them barbarians and that they are
barbarians) there are important kingdoms, large numbers of people who live
settled lives in a society, great cities, kings, judges and laws, persons who
engage in commerce, buying, selling, lending, and the other contracts of the
law of nations, will it not stand proved that the Reverend Doctor Sepulveda
has spoken wrongly and viciously against peoples like these, either out of
malice or ignorance of Aristotle's teaching, and, therefore, has falsely and
perhaps irreparably slandered them before the entire world? From the fact
that the Indians are barbarians it does not necessarily follow that they are
incapable of government and have to be ruled by others, except to be taught
about the Catholic faith and to be admitted to the holy sacraments. They are
not ignorant, inhuman, or bestial. Rather, long before they had heard the
word Spaniard they had properly organized states, wisely ordered by
excellent laws, religion, and custom. They cultivated friendship and, bound
together in common fellowship, lived in populous cities in which they wisely
administered the affairs of both peace and war justly and equitably, truly
governed by laws that at very many points surpass ours, and could have won
the admiration of the sages of Athens.
Now if they are to be subjugated by war because they are ignorant of
polished literature, I would like to hear Seplveda, in his cleverness,
answer this question: Does he think that the war of the Romans against the
Spanish was justified in order to free them from barbarism? And this question
also: Did the Spanish wage an unjust war when they vigorously defended
themselves against them?
Next, I call the Spaniards who plunder that unhappy people torturers. Do you
think that the Romans, once they had subjugated the wild and barbaric
peoples of Spain, could with secure right divide all of you among themselves,
handing over so many head of both males and females as allotments to
individuals? And do you then conclude that the Romans could have stripped
your rulers of their authority and consigned all of you, after you had been
deprived of your liberty, to wretched labors, especially in searching for gold
and silver lodes and mining and refining the metals? For God's sake and
man's faith in him, is this the way to impose the yoke of Christ on Christian
men? Is this the way to remove wild barbarism from the minds of barbarians?

Is it not, rather, to act like thieves, cut-throats, and cruel plunderers and to
drive the gentlest of people headlong into despair? The Indian race is not
that barbaric, nor are they dull witted or stupid, but they are easy to teach
and very talented in learning all the liberal arts, and very ready to accept,
honor, and observe the Christian religion and correct their sins (as
experience has taught) once priests have introduced them to the sacred
mysteries and taught them the word of God. They have been endowed with
excellent conduct, and before the coming of the Spaniards, as we have said,
they had political states that were well founded on beneficial laws.
Furthermore, they are so skilled in every mechanical art that with every right
they should be set ahead of all the nations of the known world on this score,
so very beautiful in their skill and artistry are the things this people produces
in the grace of its architecture, its painting, and its needlework. But
Seplveda despises these mechanical arts, as if these things do not reflect
inventiveness, ingenuity, industry, and right reason. For a mechanical art is
an operative habit of the intellect that is usually defined as the right way to
make things, directing the acts of the reason, through which the artisan
proceeds in orderly fashion, easily, and unerringly in the very act of reason.
So these men are not stupid, Reverend Doctor. Their skillfully fashioned
works of superior refinement awaken the admiration of all nations, because
works proclaim a man's talent, for, as the poet says, the work commends the
craftsman. Also, Prosper [of Aquitaine] says: See, the maker is proclaimed
by the wonderful signs of his works and the effects, too, sing of their author.
In the liberal arts that they have been taught up to now, such as grammar
and logic, they are remarkably adept. With every kind of music they charm
the ears of their audience with wonderful sweetness. They write skillfully and
quite elegantly, so that most often we are at a loss to know whether the
characters are handwritten or printed
The Indians are our brothers, and Christ has given his life for them. Why,
then, do we persecute them with such inhuman savagery when they do not
deserve such treatment? The past, because it cannot be undone, must be
attributed to our weakness, provided that what has been taken unjustly is
restored.
Finally, let all savagery and apparatus of war, which are better suited to
Moslems than Christians, be done away with. Let upright heralds be sent to
proclaim Jesus Christ in their way of life and to convey the attitudes of Peter
and Paul. [The Indians] will embrace the teaching of the gospel, as I well
know, for they are not stupid or barbarous but have a native sincerity and
are simple, moderate, and meek, and, finally, such that I do not know
whether there is any people readier to receive the gospel. Once they have
embraced it, it is marvelous with what piety, eagerness, faith, and charity
they obey Christ's precepts and venerate the sacraments. For they are docile

and clever, and in their diligence and gifts of nature, they excel most peoples
of the known world.

2. Juan Gins De Seplveda Belittles the Indians 1547 Pages 3 to 16

Juan Gines de Sepulveda Belittles the Indians (1547). [AS]
Juan Gines de Sepulveda was a sixteenth century Spanish intellectual who is
most notable for his position as an advocate for the Spanish conquest of the
Indies. He argued from a humanist perspective but also from one that
asserted that spreading Christianity to the native peoples encountered in the
New World was an obligation and that enslavement of any indigenous
peoples was justified.
Juan Gins de Seplveda was an outstanding example of the Renaissance
man. A Spaniard who studied in the cradle of the Renaissance, Italy, he
achieved fame as a theologian, philosopher, historian, and astronomer. When
Emperor Charles V convened a debate in Valladolid, Spain, in 15501551 to
determine the future of Spain's relationship with the American aborigines, he
naturally turned to Seplveda as one of the most learned men in his realm.
As a student of Aristotle, Seplveda relied heavily on the classical distinction
between civilized Greeks and barbarians. The selection that follows is not
a transcript of the debate at Valladolid but an excerpt from Seplveda's book
The Second Democrates, published in 1547, in which he set forth his basic
arguments. What differences does Seplveda emphasize between Europeans
(especially Spaniards) and the Indians, and on what grounds does he assert
the superiority of European culture?
The Spanish have a perfect right to rule these barbarians of the New World
and the adjacent islands, who in prudence, skill, virtues, and humanity are as
inferior to the Spanish as children to adults, or women to men, for there
exists between the two as great a difference as between savage and cruel
races and the most merciful, between the most intemperate and the
moderate and temperate and, I might even say, between apes and men.
You surely do not expect me to recall at length the prudence and talents of
the Spanish. And what can I say of the gentleness and humanity of our
people, who, even in battle, after having gained the victory, put forth their
greatest effort and care to save the greatest possible number of the
conquered and to protect them from the cruelty of their allies?
Compare, then, these gifts of prudence, talent, magnanimity, temperance,
humanity, and religion with those possessed by these half-men (homunculi),
in whom you will barely find the vestiges of humanity, who not only do not
possess any learning at all, but are not even literate or in possession of any
monument to their history except for some obscure and vague reminiscences

of several things put down in various paintings; nor do they have written
laws, but barbarian institutions and customs. Well, then, if we are dealing
with virtue, what temperance or mercy can you expect from men who are
committed to all types of intemperance and base frivolity, and eat human
flesh? And do not believe that before the arrival of the Christians they lived
in that pacific kingdom of Saturn which the poets have invented; for, on the
contrary, they waged continual and ferocious war upon one another with
such fierceness that they did not consider a victory at all worthwhile unless
they sated their monstrous hunger with the flesh of their enemies.
Furthermore these Indians were otherwise so cowardly and timid that they
could barely endure the presence of our soldiers, and many times thousands
upon thousands of them scattered in flight like women before Spaniards so
few that they did not even number one hundred. Although some of them
show a certain ingenuity for various works of artisanship, this is no proof of
human cleverness, for we can observe animals, birds, and spiders making
certain structures which no human accomplishment can competently imitate.
And as for the way of life of the inhabitants of New Spain and the province of
Mexico, I have already said that these people are considered the most
civilized of all, and they themselves take pride in their public institutions,
because they have cities erected in a rational manner and kings who are not
hereditary but elected by popular vote, and among themselves they carry on
commercial activities in the manner of civilized peoples. But see how they
deceive themselves, and how much I dissent from such an opinion, seeing,
on the contrary, in these very institutions a proof of the crudity, the
barbarity, and the natural slavery of these people; for having houses and
some rational way of life and some sort of commerce is a thing which the
necessities of nature itself induce, and only serves to prove that they are not
bears or monkeys and are not totally lacking in reason. But on the other
hand, they have established their nation in such a way that no one possesses
anything individually, neither a house nor a field, which he can leave to his
heirs in his will, for everything belongs to their masters whom, with improper
nomenclature, they call kings, and by whose whims they live, more than by
their own, ready to do the bidding and desire of these rulers and possessing
no liberty. And the fulfillment of all this, not under the pressure of arms but in
a voluntary and spontaneous way, is a definite sign of the servile and base
soul of these barbarians. They have distributed the land in such a way that
they themselves cultivate the royal and public holdings, one part belonging
to the king, another to public feasts and sacrifices, with only a third reserved
for their own advantage, and all this is done in such a way that they live as
employees of the king, paying, thanks to him, exceedingly high taxes. And
if this type of servile and barbarous nation had not been to their liking and
nature, it would have been easy for them, as it was not a hereditary
monarchy, to take advantage of the death of a king in order to obtain a freer
state and one more favorable to their interests; by not doing so, they have
stated quite clearly that they have been born to slavery and not to civic and
liberal life. Therefore, if you wish to reduce them, I do not say to our

domination, but to a servitude a little less harsh, it will not be difficult for
them to change their masters, and instead of the ones they had, who were
barbarous and impious and inhuman, to accept the Christians, cultivators of
human virtues and the true faith.

1. A Contract for Indentured Service - 1635

Pages 62 to 42

A Contract for Indentured Service (1635) [AS]

For the poor man or woman wishing to migrate to the English colonies in
North America, contracting for a period of servitude was one option. In some
cases, prisoners were also offered the opportunity to immigrate under these
contracts. More common, prior to large-scale importation of African slaves, in
colonies like Virginia than in regions like New England the motive for buyers
of indentured servant contracts was for labor. Like many other issues of
colonial development, the demographics of the colony drove this system.
Virginia was a colony, as tobacco became a staple crop, with a need for
laborers but a low rate of immigration from England in its first decades of
settlement. Contracts for indentured service usually provided transportation
in exchange for a defined term of service were common. Terms of service,
however, were often extended for infractions of rules, damages to property,
and periods of inability to work.
1

Blank indenture form in Anon. [Father Andrew White], A Relation of

Maryland (London: 1635, 1966), pp. 53-54.
Indentured servitude took many forms, and many different types of contracts
survive from the colonial era. In this blank contract from 1635, what are the
principal obligations undertaken by the two contracting parties? What areas
of discretion or choice
did either servant or master have? How might that discretion have been
abusedby either party?
The forme of binding a servant.
This indenture made day of in the yeere of our Soveraigne Lord King Charles,
&c. betweene of the one party, and on the other party, Witnesseth, that the
said doth hereby covenant promise, and grant, to and with the said his
Executors and Assignes, to serve him from the day of the date hereof, untill
his first and next arrivall in Maryland; and after for and during the tearme of
yeeres, in such service and imployment, as he the said or his assignes shall
there imploy him, according to the custome of the Countrey in the like kind.
In consideration whereof, the said doth promise and grant, to and with the
said to pay for his passing, and to find him with Meat, Drinke, Apparell and
Lodging, with other necessaries during the said terme; and at the end of the
said terme, to give him one whole yeeres provision of Corne, and fifty acres
of Land, according to the order of the countrey. In witnesse whereof, the said

hath hereunto put his hand and seale, the day and yeere above written.
Sealed and delivered in the presence of H

4. A Servant Girl Pays the Wages of Sin - 1656

Pages 67 to 42

A Servant Girl Pays the Wages of Sin (1656) [AS]

In this document, Anne Parke, an indentured servant in Virginia was
sentenced by the court to an extension of her contract due to the birth of an
illegitimate child.
Single, lonely, and hard-used, indentured servants enjoyed few liberties.
Those who went astray could be severely punished. In the following record
from Charles City County Court, Virginia, what are the consequences of the
servant girl's having borne an illegitimate child?
Whereas Ann Parke servant to Elizabeth Hatcher widdow is Complained of
and proved to have Comitted Fornication and borne a Child in the time of her
service: It is therefore ordered that the said Ann shall double the time of
service due to be performed by her to her mistress or her assigns, from the
time of her departure, according to act in that Case made and provided.

Questions for Discussion and Writing

1.

How were indentured servants punished by the courts in Virginia and for what
sorts of crimes? What do we know from these existing records of the servants' side
of these stories? What abuses by masters or mistresses holding the contracts of
servants like these might happen in cases like this? What really is the position of the
indentured servant who might have migrated under these terms for an idea of
freedom or economic opportunity?

5. An Unruly Servant Is Punished - 1679

Pages 68 to 69

An Unruly Servant is Punished (1679) [AS]

In another Virginia court case, a male indentured servant is sentenced for
threatening his mistress at knife point. The document here is in two parts:
the testimony of the mistress, Elizabeth Bowen detailing the events and the
judgment of the court setting his punishment.

The planter-employers and masters struggled constantly to keep their harddrinking, fractious servants in line. Sometimes matters got seriously out of
hand, as in the following account from Virginia's Accomack County Court
records in 1679. What were the terms of the offender's punishment? Were
they justified?
The Examination of Elizabeth Bowen WiddowsaithThat on Sunday
evening being the eighteenth day of May 1679 Thomas Jones her servant did
come into her Roome and with a naked Rapier in his hand did tell her he
would kill her and said shee had sent Will Waight to her Mothers and that
shee had got a master for them, but hee would bee her Master and allso said
that he would not kill her if shee would let him lye with her all night and bade
her goe to bed and she answered she would
not and Runn in with his Rapier and bent it, then he said he woald cutt her
throat but she getting [to] the dore did run out of dores and he after her and
ketched [her] in the yard and as she was standing did endeavor to cutt her
throat with a knife but could not and then he threw her down and did there
allso indeavour to cutt her throat but she prevented it by defending her
throat with her hands and bending the knife hee took her [petti]coats and
threw [them] over her head and gave her two or three blows in the face with
his fist and bade her get her gun and did in this act with the Knife scurrify
her throat and brest and cut her right hand with six or seven cutts very much
and that she with bending the Rapier and knife cut her hands and fingers
very much
Elizabeth Bowen
Whereas Elizabeth Bowin Widdow did by her examination upon oath in open
Court declare that Thomas Jones her servant in a most barbarous and
villanous nature sett upon and most desparately attempted to murder the
said Bowin with a naked Rapier and Knife to cut her throat which had been
perpatrated and committed had it not bee[n] Providentially and strongly
prevented by the said Bowins resistance recieving severall wounds in her
endeavours to prevent the sam[e] which was allso confessed by the said
Jones: The Court takeing the same into their serious Considerations do order
as a just reward for his said horrid offense and crime that the sherriff
Forthwith take him into Custody and that he forthwith receive thirty nine
lashes on the bare back well laid on: and to have his haire cutt off and an
Iron Coller forthwith put about his neck dureing the Courts pleasure and after
the time for which he was to serve his said mistriss is expired to serve his
said mistriss or assignes one whole yeare according to Act for laying violent
hands on his said mistriss and allso two yeares for his wounding her as

aforesaid and after due punishment inflicted accordingly The Court do further
order that the sherriff deliver the said Jones to the said Elizabeth Bowin or
order (it being by her request) and the said Bownig [sic] to Pay Court
Charges the said Jones makeing satisfaction for the same after his time of
service is expired