But far more Indians were enslaved in their homelands to harvest gold from bits of dust found in streams. The war against the native population included hangings and burnings. Mass suicides followed. Virtually all were dead within two generations. Today, media voices that boom the loudest in defense of Columbus are often the most ignorant.
History tells a different story.
After owning a plantation with Indian slaves, Las Casas had a change of heart and began recording what he'd witnessed. He described a cooperative Indian society in a bountiful land, a generally peaceful culture that occasionally went to war with other tribes. Yet there'd been no subjugation of the kind brought by Columbus. My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write. It's true that Columbus was a gifted navigator, personally brave and tenacious.