Pastor Thomas, national director of The Knights Party issued a statement today denouncing the vandalism of the Christopher Columbus statue in Providence that occurred this morning. Robb noted, “this is a blatant attempt to demonize white people and white Christian people in particular.” Robb went on to decry the allegations that Columbus savagely participated and promoted in the kidnapping and placement of Indian girls into the sex trade. This lie comes from taking a portion of text out of context.
in his letter he writes:
“For one woman they give a hundred castellanos, as for a farm; and this sort of trading is very common, and there are already a great number of merchants who go in search of girls; there are at this moment from nine or ten on sale; they fetch a good price, let their age be what it will.”
The claim is that this proves he is a monster who approved of sex slavery. However, the truth is that he was upset that some had been committing this horrible crime. Furthermore, he was outraged at the treatment women received by other Indians.
“I declare solemnly that a great number of men have been to the Indies, who did not deserve baptism in the eyes of God or men, and who are now returning thither.”
During Columbus’ voyages, he came across several islands ruled by a people know as the Caribs (where we get the word Caribbean). He found villages comprised of mostly women who had been enslaved and taken away from their homes. One of the leading crewmen describes that:
“These captive women told us that the Carribbee men use them with such cruelty as would scarcely be believed; and that they eat the children which they bear to them, only bringing up those which they have by their native wives.”
Christopher Columbus was not a sex trafficker and it is absurd to suggest so, when in fact he was opposed to the ill treatment of Indian women. This is just one more attempt to distort the past and instill a guilt complex into white people. The vandalizers, who no doubt claim to support women’s rights, are the ones who should be ashamed.
Notes:
Christopher Columbus, “Letter of the Admiral to the (quondam) nurse of the Prince John, written near the end of the year 1500,” Select Letters of Christopher Columbus (London: Hakluyt Society, 1870), p.165.
Christopher Columbus, “Letter of the Admiral to the (quondam) nurse of the Prince John, written near the end of the year 1500,” Select Letters of Christopher Columbus (London: Hakluyt Society, 1870), p.165.
“Letter of Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca,” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1907), Vol. 48, p. 440.