Anacaona: Golden Flower, Haiti, 1490

This is definitely not a happy book. Anacaona is in line to inherit the throne of a group that lived in the Southwestern portion of what is today's country of Haiti. As such, there is always material on what type of life she leads and the kinds of problems that she runs into. Although, in this case, it involves another group of people who wage war on her tribe (using the term somewhat loosely), and on other tribes.

What makes it far worse is the arrival of white explorers whose ability to wage war greatly exceeds that of any tribe native to the Haiti area. When it comes down to guns vs. groups that have no guns at all, the ones with guns will almost always win.

The really dark part concerns information about Christopher Columbus.

One of his settlements had been attacked and destroyed, and the type of revenge he sets out on would have made Hitler and Stalin both very, very proud.

The book notes he returned with 17 ships, 1700 men and plenty of ammunition. He immediately attacked one of the chieftains and defeated him and his brother, taking both captive. He defeated a force of thousands of (unarmed) fighters that came to help their chieftain. He ordered a tribute of gold and cotton from every person on the island 14 years old or older.

To make sure he got what he wanted he established a system of forced labor (slavery), forcing people to work in gold mines or on plantations, flogging and torturing people as he went. In 1503 the Spanish governor wanted a meeting with Anacaona and she came with over 80 of her people. They were massacred by the soldiers and she was taken captive and hung.

This doesn't even count the fact that the diseases the soldiers brought with them spread to the native population, killing many of them (as it would kill many Native Americans in North America later.) There were as estimated 200,000 people living on the island when Columbus got there. Fifty years later there were only a few hundred natives left.

If you don't know the word, look up the meaning of genocide and then think twice about what a "great" man Columbus was.


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