Zachary Woodruff

Mrs. Johnson
A.P. U.S. History
August 2, 2010
People’s History of the United States.
My main reaction to all of this passage is I am completely appalled. My second

reaction is confusion. The acts of Columbus and the Spanish in America are just cruel

that they could get away with this sort of thing. The first sentence that jumped out at me

because of its cruelty is “They would make fine servants… they would do whatever we

want.” It is horrible because the first reaction to the new people that they found is that

they need to serve us in any way they can. The second thought that passed through

these people’s heads is “where is the gold.” There obsession with gold is so great that

the Europeans literally walk onto some undiscovered land and demand gold. The thing

that disgusts me the most the how many needless killings the Europeans gave. The

people that traveled to Haiti forced the natives to collect gold, and if they didn’t get

enough, they were given a brutal death. When all the gold was collected from Haiti, the

slave trade began. The Spanish in Mexico were just as brutal as the ones in Haiti. The

Europeans rode on chariots and often killed the inhabitants without even a second

thought. The worst part was the baby killing and therefore the population reduction.

Many parents killed their children in order to save them from the horrors of growing up

in a world of fear. Because many babies were killed, the population was reduced up to

ninety percent. The other reaction to this passage was how these people ever get a

good reputation? It was apparent that there was death and murder all around these
people. How did people miss that they caused so much death an only focus on what

little good they did?