Zinn

In this particular passage I believe Zinn's thesis was "When Columbus and his sailors came ashore,carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts." Zinn basically explained how it was when Columbus supposedly discovered new land. As they were sailing along a different sailor named Rodrigo saw the land first but Columbus took the credit for it and was given the reward. On this particular land the Arawak Indians lived there but because their language and ways of life weren't the same as ours and they were so eager to greet and welcome us Columbus took them as slaves. He used up all their resources and worked them so hard until eventually they had all died. With the visions that Columbus had they didn't stand a chance. The way the European's worked them made their situations become fatal. Ex: "They were worked at such a ferocious pace, and died by the thousands." It was so horrible that some mothers would do unthinkable things to their children. Ex. "Some mothers even drowned their babies from sheer desperation." Columbus did what he did for an impossible vision he had of this land full of gold. Zinn finished by pointing out how large the population was before Columbus did his damage. The Indians may not have had our ways of life but they were civilized in their own way before Columbus tried to change them.

Did things have to go the way they did in the past ot make a better future? That's the question i want to ask. In the arguement made by Zinn you would say no. It is never called for to do the things that were done to the Arawak Indians back then. My only hesitation in agreeing is who's to say that the account of the events in the passage by Zinn is true. Going by what we have been taught our entire childhood Columbus did discover the America's and none of this information is true. This is why we celebrate him and give him the credit.

In my own opinion now after doing some research and reading the article I would have to say that things did not have to go the way they did in the past to make a better future. We pride ourselves on being a coutry that is fair and just but if you look at a situation such as this we can see that isn't always true. I agree with Zinn's opinion on the subject solely because of the evidence presented in articles such as this.