10/12/2026
The Arawaks swam out to welcome Columbus’ ships. Columbus, funded by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, enslaved, tortured and r***d the Arawaks. Within two years, half of the 250,000 indigenous people in Haiti were dead. With too many slaves dying in captivity, and having to make good on his promise of gold to the Crown and the Church, in Haiti all persons 14 years or older were forced to work in gold mines until exhausted. It’s estimated that within eight months, nearly a third died. Each had to collect at least a thimble of gold dust every three months. This was a nearly impossible task: the only gold to be found were bits visible in some rivers. As many as 10,000 had their hands cut off and tied around their necks while they bled to death for failing to meet their quota. Others fled and were hunted down with dogs and killed.
Once the Spaniards figured out there were no gold fields, they forced the indigenous people into slave labor on huge feudal agricultural estates called encomiendas, where they were worked to death. In 1515, an ultimatum was issued by the Spanish conquerors to all indigenous people they encountered in the New World:
“We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command, and we shall take away your goods, and shall do all the mischief and damage that we can.”
The Arawaks tried to organize resistance, but were no match for the Spanish armaments. Those captured were hanged or burned to death, triggering the start of mass suicides among the Arawaks, including babies deliberately poisoned by their mothers rather than see them tortured. In two years, half of the 250,000 indigenous people in Haiti were dead. By 1515, only 50,000 Arawaks remained; by 1550, there were 500. And this was just the beginning of the massive genocide of native peoples in the Americas by European powers and their colonial settlers, set in motion by Christopher Columbus and his ‘discovery.’
Read American Crime Case #77 “Christopher Columbus brought genocide and slavery to the ‘new world’ and America celebrates him for it”
https://revcom.us/en/a/460/american-crime-case-77-christopher-columbus-en.html
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