Cobbs-Hoffman Elizabeth, Blum Edward J., Gjerde Jon. Major Problems in American History, Volume I, 3 edition (ENG)
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first meeting with the people in the Caribbean and his sense of the economic possibility
of the Indies. In its description of the Indians, his letter betrays an odd blending of
tenderness and a brutal assessment of their potential uses. In Document 4, a Spanish
priest, Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, describes the conquest of the Aztecs by Spanish
conquistadors in 1519. Document 5 is a drawing of Nahua Indians from the
sixteenth century infected with smallpox. Although Europeans wrote most of the
documents in this chapter, Document 7 is an exception. It is a transcription of an oral
tradition that describes the arrival of the Dutch on Manhattan Island. Document 6 is
an engraving based on a drawing from the 1580s. It shows a Secotan village on
the outer banks of North Carolina. Notice how the Secotan organized space for hous-
ing, agriculture, and religious ceremonies. Document 8 is an English description of
native people in what is now New England in 1634, shortly before the bloody Pequot
War. Note how author William Wood, an early settler in Massachusetts Bay, pays
particular attention to the varying conditions of women in the Indian and British
worlds.
1. The Iroquois Describe the Beginning of the World, n.d.
In the beginning there was no world, no land, no creatures of the kind that are
around us now, and there were no men. But there was a great ocean which
occupied space as far as anyone could see. Above the ocean was a great void of
air. And in the air there lived the birds of the sea; in the ocean lived the fish and
the creatures of the deep. Far abo ve this unpeopled world, there was a Sky-
World. Here lived g ods who were like people—like Iroquois.
In the Sky-World there was a man who had a wife, and the wife was expect-
ing a child. The woman became hungry for all kinds of strange delicacies, as
women do when they are with child. She kept her husband busy almost to
distraction finding delicious things for her to eat….
The woman decided that she wanted some bark from one of the roots of the
Great Tree—perhaps as a food or as a medicine, we don’t know. She told her
husband this. He didn’t like the idea. He knew it was wrong. But she insisted,
and he gave in. So he dug a hole among the roots of this great sky tree, and he
bared some of its roots. But the floor of the Sky-World wasn’t very thick, and
he broke a hole through it. He was terrified, for he had never expected to find
empty space underneath the world.
But his wife was filled with curiosity. He wouldn’t get any of the roots for her,
so she set out to do it herself. She bent over and she looked down, and she saw the
ocean far below. She leaned down and stuck her head through the hole and looked
all around. No one knows just what happened next. Some say she slipped. Some say
that her husband, fed up with all the demands she had made on him, pushed her.
So she fell through the hole. As she fell, she frantically grabbed at its edges,
but her hands slipped. However, between her fingers there clung bits of things
From “The World on the Turtle’s Back,” as seen in The Great Tree and the Longhouse: The Culture of the Iroquois by
Hazel W. Hertzberg.
CONQUEST AND COLLIDING WORLDS
3
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that were growing on the floor of the Sky-World and bits of the root tips of the
Great Tree. And so she began to fall toward the great ocean far below….
The great sea turtle came and agreed to receive her on his back. The birds
placed her gently on the shell of the turtle, and now the turtle floated about on
the huge ocean with the woman safely on his back….
When the woman recovered from her shock and terror, she looked around
her. All that she could see were the birds and the sea creatures and the sky and
the ocean.
And the woman said to herself that she would die. But the creatures of the
sea came to her and said that they would try to help her and asked her what they
could do. She told them that if they could get some soil, she could plant the
roots stuck between her fingers, and from them plants would grow ….
The woman took the tiny clod of dirt and placed it on the middle of the
great sea turtle’s back. Then the woman began to walk in a circle around it,
moving in the direction that the sun goes. The earth began to grow. When the
earth was big enough, she planted the roots she had clutched between her fingers
when she fell from the Sky-World. Thus the plants grew on the earth.
To keep the earth growing, the woman walked as the sun goes, moving in the
direction that the people still move in the dance rituals. She gathered roots and
plants to eat and built herself a little hut. After a while, the woman’s time came,
and she was delivered of a daughter. The woman and her daughter kept walking in
a circle around the earth, so that the earth and plants would continue to grow.
They lived on the plants and roots they gathered. The girl grew up with her
mother, cut off forever from the Sky-World above, knowing only the birds and
the creatures of the sea, seeing no other beings like herself.
One day, when the girl had grown to womanhood, a man appeared. No one
knows for sure who this man was. He had something to do with the gods above.
Perhaps he was the West Wind. As the girl looked at him, she was filled with
terror, and amazement, and warmth, and she fainted dead away. As she lay on the
ground, the man reached into his quiver, and he took out two arrows, one sharp
and one blunt, and he laid them across the body of the girl, and quietly went away.
When the girl awoke from her faint, she and her mother continued to walk
around the earth. After a while, they knew that the girl was to bear a child. They
did not know it, but the girl was to bear twins.
Within the girl’s body, the twins began to argue and quarrel with one another.
There could be no peace between them. As the time approached for them to be
born, the twins fought about their birth. The right-handed twin wanted to be born
in the normal way, as all children are born. But the left-handed twin said no. He
said he saw light in another direction, and said he would be born that way. The
right-handed twin beseeched him not to, saying that he would kill their mother.
But the left-handed twin was stubborn. He went in the direction where he saw
light. But he could not be born through his mother’s mouth or her nose. He was
born through her left armpit, and killed her. And meanwhile, the right-handed
twin was born in the normal way, as all children are born….
These two brothers, as they grew up, represented two ways of the world
which are in all people. The Indians did not call these the right and the wrong.
4 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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They called them the straight mind and the crooked mind, the upright man and
the devious man, the right and the left.
The twins had creative powers. They took clay and modeled it into animals,
and they gave these animals life. And in this they contended with one another.
The right-handed twin made the deer, and the left-handed twin made the
mountain lion which kills the deer. But the right-handed twin knew there
would always be more deer than mountain lions. And he made another animal.
He made the ground squirrel. The left-handed twin saw that the mountain lion
could not get to the ground squirrel, who digs a hole, so he made the weasel.
And although the weasel can go into the ground squirrel’s hole and kill him,
there are lots of ground squirrels and not so many weasels. Next the right-
handed twin decided he would make an animal that the weasel could not kill,
so he made the porcupine. But the left-handed twin made the bear, who flips
the porcupine over on his back and tears out his belly.
And the right-handed twin made berries and fruits of other kinds for his crea-
tures to live on. The left-handed twin made briars and poison ivy, and the poison-
ous plants like the baneberry and the dogberry, and the suicide root with which
people kill themselves when they go out of their minds. And the left-handed twin
made medicines, for good and for evil, for doctoring and for witchcraft.
And finally, the right-handed twin made man….
As the twins became men full grown, they still contested with one another.
No one had won, and no one had lost. And they knew that the conflict was be-
coming sharper and sharper and one of them would have to vanquish the other….
2. The Portuguese Describe Battles with West Africans, 1448
… And when the ship had been provisioned, they made their voyage straight to
Cape Verde, whereat in the past year they had captured the two Guineas of whom
we have spoken in another place, and thence they passed on to the Cape of Masts….
And so journeying along the sea coast, in a few days they went on shore
again, and came upon a village, and its inhabitants issued forth like men who
showed they had a will to defend their houses, and among them came one
armed with a good buckler and an assegai [spear] in his hand. And Alvaro Fernandez
seeing him, and judging him to be the leader of the band, went stoutly at him, and
gave him such a great wound with his lance that he fell down dead, and then he
took from him his shield and assegai; and these he brought home to the Infant along
with some other things, as will be related further on.
Now the Guineas, perceiving that man to be dead, paused from their fight-
ing, and it appeared to our m en to be neither the time nor the pl ace to withdraw
them from that fear. But rather they returned to their ship and on the next day
landed a little way distant from there, wheretheyespiedsomeofthewivesof
those Guineas walking. And it seemeth that they were going nigh to a creek
“Of how Alvaro Fernandez returned again to the land of the Negroes…,” in Documents Illustrative of the History of the
Slave Trade to America, ed., Elizabeth Donnan (New York: Octagon Books, 1969), 1: 39–41.
CONQUEST AND COLLIDING WORLDS
5
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collecting shell-fish, and they captured one of them, who would b e a s much as
thirty years of age, with a son of hers who woul d be of about two, and also a
young girl of fourteen years, who had well -formed limbs and also a favo rable
presence for a Guinea; but the strength of the woman was much to be marvelled
at, for not one of th e three men who came upon h er but would have had a great
labour in attempting to get her to the boat. And so one of our men, seeing the
delay they were m aking, during which it m ight be that some of th e dwellers of
the land would come upon them, con ceived it well to take her son f rom her and
to carry him to the boat; and love of the child compelled the mother to follow
after it, without great pressure on the part of the two who were bringing her.
From this place they went on further for a certain distance until they lighted
upon a river, into which they entered with the boat, and in some houses that
they fo und they captured a woman, and after they had brought her to the cara-
vel, they returned once more to the river, intending to journey higher up in
order to try and make some good booty. And as they were pursuing their voyage
thus, there came upon them four or five bo ats of Guineas prepared like men
who would defend their land, an d our men in the boat were not desirous to
try a combat with them, seeing the great advantage their enemies had, and espe-
cially because they feared t he great peril that lay in the poison with which they
shot … th eir boat came so near that one of those Guineas made a shot at it and
happened to hit Alvaro Fernandez with an arrow in the leg. But since he had
already been warned of its poison, he drew out that arrow very quickly and
had th e wound washed with urine and olive oil, and then anointed it very
well … and it pleased God that it availed him, although his health was in very
troublous case, for during certain days he was in the very act of passing away
from life. The others on the caravel, although they saw their captain thus
wounded, d esisted not from voyaging forward along that coast until they arrived
at a narrow strip o f sand stretching in front of a great bay, and here they put out
their boat and went inside to see what kind of land they woul d find; and when
they were in sight of the beach they saw coming toward them full 120 Guineas,
some with shields and assegais, others with bows. And as soon as they came near
the water these began to play and dance like men far removed fro m any so rrow;
but o ur men in the boat, wishful to escape from the i nvitation to that festival,
returned to their ship.
3. Christopher Columbus Recounts His First Encounters
with Native People, 1493
Sir,
As I know that you will have pleasure of the great victory which our Lord
hathgivenmeinmyvoyage,Iwriteyouthis,bywhichyoushallknowthatin
Spanish Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant’ Angel, Escribano de Racion of the Kingdom of Aragon, Dated 15 February 1493,
Reprinted in Facsimile, Translated and Edited from the Unique Copy of the Original Edition (London: 1891), 22–27. (Translator
unknown; reprinted in 1891 from a copy in the possession of Bernard Quaritch.) This document can also be found in
America Firsthand, ed. Robert Marcus and David Burner (New York: St. Martin’s Press/Bedford Books, 1989), 3–8.
6 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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[thirty-three] days I passed over to the Indies with the fleet which the most
illustrious King and Queen, our Lords, gave me: where I foun d very many
islands peopled with inhabitants beyond number. And, of them all, I have
taken possession for their Highnesses…. Spaño la is a marvel; the mountains
andhills,andplains,andfields,andland,sobeautifulandrichforplanting
and sowing, for breeding cattle of all sorts, for building of towns and villages.
There could be no believing, without seeing, such harbours as are here, as well
as the many and great rivers, and excellent waters, m ost of which contain gold.
In the trees and fruits and plants, there are grea t differences from those of
Juana [Cuba]. In [La Spañola], there are many spiceries, and great mines of
gold and other metals. Th e people of this island, and of all the others that I
have fou nd and seen, or not seen, all go naked, men and women, just as their
mothers bring them forth; although some women cover a single place with the
leaf of a plant, or a cotton something which they make for that purpose. They
have no iron or steel, nor any weapons; no r are they fit thereunto; not because
they be not a well-formed people and of fair stature, but that they are most
wondrously timorous. They have no other weapons than the stems of reeds in
their seeding state, on the end of which they fix little sharpened stakes. Even
these, they dare not use….Itistruethatsincetheyhavebecomemoreas-
sured, and are losing that terror, they are artless and generous with what they
have, to such a degree a s no one would believe but him who had seen it. O f
anything they have, i f it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite
the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would
give their hearts. And whether it be a t hing of valu e, or on e of little worth,
they are straightways content with whatsoever trifle of whatsoever kind may
be given them in return for it…. I gave gratuitously a thousand useful things
that I carried, in order that they may conceive affection, and furthermore may
be made Christians; fo r they are inclined to the love and service of their High-
nesses and of all th e Castilian nation, and they strive to combine in givi ng u s
thingswhichtheyhaveinabundance,andofwhichweareinneed.Andthey
knew no sect, nor idolatry; save that they all believe that power and goodness
are in the sky, and they believed very firmly that I , with these ships and crew,
came from the sky; and in such opin ion they received me at every place where
Ilanded…. They are men of very s ubtle wit, who navigate all tho se seas, and
who give a marvellously go od account o f everything …. As I have already said,
they are the most timorous creatures there are in the world, so that the men
who remain there are alone sufficient to destroy all that land, and t he island is
without personal danger for them if they kn ow how to behave themselves. It
seemstomethatinallthoseislands,themenareallcontentwithasinglewife;
and to their chief or king they give as many as twenty. The women, it appears
tome,domoreworkthanthemen.NorhaveIbeenabletolearnwhether
they held personal property, for it seemed to me that whatever one had, they
all took share of, especially of eatable things. Down to the present, I have not
found in those islands any monstrous men, as many expected, but on the con-
trary all the people are very comely; nor are they black like those in Guinea,
CONQUEST AND COLLIDING WORLDS 7
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but have flowing h air; and they are not begotten where there is an excessive
violence of the rays of the sun….SincethusourRedeemerhasgiventoour
most illustrious Ki ng and Queen, a nd to their famous kingdoms, this victory in
so high a matter, Christendom shoul d take gladness therein and make great
festivals, and give solemn thanks to the Holy Trinity for the great exaltation
they sh all have by the conversion of so many peoples to our holy f aith;
and next for the t emporal benefit which will bring hither refreshment and
profit, not only to Spain, but to all Christians. This briefly, in accordance
with the facts. Dated, on the caravel, off the Canary Islands, the 15 February
of the year 1493.
At your command,
T
HE ADMIRAL.
4. Fray Bernardino de Sahagun Relates an Aztec
Chronicler’s Account of the Spanish Conquest
of the Aztecs, 1519
[In 1519, at the town of Cholula,] there arose from the Spaniards a cry sum-
moning all the noblemen, lords, war leaders, warriors, and common folk; and
when they had crowded into the temple courtyard, then the Spaniards and their
allies blocked the entrances and every exit. There followed a butchery of stab-
bing, beating, killing of the unsuspecting Cholulans armed with no bows and
arrows, protected by no shields … with no warning, they were treacherously,
deceitfully slain….
[As Cortés and his army approached Tenochtitlán, the people of the city]
rose in tumult, alarmed as if by an earthquake, as if there were a constant reeling
of the face of the earth.
Shocked, terrified, Moctezuma himself wept in the distress he felt for his
city. Everyone was in terror; everyone was astounded, afflicted. Many huddled
in groups, wept in foreboding for their own fates and those of their friends.
Others, dejected, hung their heads. Some groups exchanged tearful greetings;
others tried mutual encouragement. Fathers would run their hands over their
small boys’ hair and, smoothing it, say, “Woe, my beloved sons! How can
what we fear be happening in your time?” Mothers, too: “My beloved sons,
how can you live through what is in store for you?”…
The iron of [the Spaniards’] lances … glistened from afar; the shimmer of
their swords was as of a sinuous water course. Their iron breast and back pieces,
their helmets clanked. Some came completely encased in iron—as if turned to
iron…. And ahead of them … ran their dogs, panting, with foam continually
dripping from their muzzles….
From an anonymous Aztec chronicler in Fray Bernardino de Sahagun, General History of Things in New Spain (1582).
8 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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Moctezuma’s own property was then brought out … precious things like
necklaces with pendants, arm bands tufted with quetzal feathers, golden arm
bands, bracelets, golden anklets with shells, rulers’ turquoise diadems, turquoise
nose rods; no end of treasure. They took all, seized everything for themselves …
as if it were theirs….
[In 1520, the Spanish occupied Tenochtitlán, took Moctezuma hostage, and
finally strangled him. Then] they charged the crowd with their iron lances and
hacked us with their iron swords. They slashed the backs of some…. They
hacked at the shoulders of others, splitting their bodies open…. The blood of
the young warriors ran like water; it gathered in pools…. And the Spaniards
began to hunt them out of the administrative buildings, dragging out and killing
anyone they could find … even starting to take those buildings to pieces as they
searched.
[The Aztecs, led by Moctezuma’s brother, Cuitlehuac, counterattacked, and
trapped the Spanish in Moctezuma’s palace. One night two months later, Cortés
and his army tried to escape. But they were so burdened with loot that two-
thirds of them died trying to cross the aqueducts leading out of the city.]
That night, at midnight, the enemy came out, crowded together, the Span-
iards in the lead, the Tlaxcallans following…. Screened by a fine drizzle, a fine
sprinkle of rain, they were able undetected to cross the canals … just as they were
crossing, a woman drawing water saw them. “Mexicans! Come, all of you….They
are already leaving! They are already secretly getting out!” Then a watcher at the
top of the temple … also shouted, and his cries pervaded the entire city….
The canal was filled, crammed with them. Those who came along behind
walked over … on corpses…. It was as if a mountain of men had been laid
down: they had pressed against one another, smothered one another….
[Then] at about the time that the Spaniards had fled from Mexico … there
came a great sickness, a pestilence, the smallpox. It … spread over the people
with great destruction of men. It caused great misery…. The brave Mexican
warriors were indeed weakened by it. It was after all this had happened that
the Spaniards came back.
[By the time the Spanish returned in 1521, Cuitlehuac had died of smallpox.
He was succeeded by Cuauhtémoc. Tenochtitlán held out against the Spanish
siege for 75 days. Finally the Spanish took the city, destroying it and killing hun-
dreds of thousands of Aztec citizens. Many of them were already sick and starv-
ing. Cuauhtémoc was forced to surrender, and later executed.] Fighting
continued, both sides took captives, on both sides there were deaths … great
became the suffering of the common folk. There was hunger. Many died of
famine…. The people ate anything —lizards, barn swallows, corn leaves, salt-
grass…. Never had such suffering been seen…. The enemy pressed about us like
a wall … they herded us…. The brave warriors were still hopelessly resisting….
Finally the battle just quietly ended. Silence reigned. Nothing happened.
The enemy left. All was quiet, and nothing more took place. Night fell, and
the next day nothing happened, either. No one spoke aloud; the people were
crushed…. So ended the war.
CONQUEST AND COLLIDING WORLDS 9
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5. A European Artist Illustrates a Smallpox Outbreak
among Nahua Indians, 1585
6. English Artist John White Depicts Indian Land Use, 1619
Peter Newark American Pictures
Native American Aztec people of Mexico dying of Small Pox introduced by the Spaniards,
copied from the Codex
Library of Congress
Algonquian village on the Pamlico River estuary showing Native structures, agriculture, and spiritual life.
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7. Reverend John Heckewelder Records a Native Oral
Tradition of the First Arrival of Europeans
on Manhattan Island (1610), 1818
A great many years ago, when men with a white skin had never yet been seen in
this land, some Indians who were out a fishing, at a place where the sea widens,
espied at a great distance something remarkably large floating on the water, and
such as they had never seen before…. At length the spectators concluded that
this wonderful object was moving towards the land, and that it must be an ani-
mal or something else that had life in it; it would therefore be proper to inform
all the Indians on the inhabited islands of what they had seen, and put them on
their guard. Accordingly they sent off a number of runners and watermen to
carry the news to their scattered chiefs, that they might send off in every direc-
tion for the warriors, with a message that they should come on immediately.
These arriving in numbers, and having themselves viewed the strange appear-
ance, and observing that it was actually moving towards the entrance of the river
or bay; concluded it to be a remarkably large house in which the Mannitto (the
Great or Supreme Being) himself was present, and that he probably was coming
to visit them. By this time the chiefs were assembled at York island, and deliber-
ating in what manner in which they should receive their Mannitto on his arrival.
Every measure was taken to be well provided with plenty of meat for a sacrifice.
The women were desired to prepare the best victuals. All the idols or images
were examined and put in order, and a grand dance was supposed not only to
be an agreeable entertainment for the Great Being, but it was believed that it
might, with the addition of a sacrifice, contribute to appease him if he was angry
with them. The conjurers were also set to work, to determine what this phe-
nomenon portended, and what the possible result of it might be. To these and
to the chiefs and wise men of the nations, men, women, and children were
looking up for advice and protection. Distracted between hope and fear, they
were at a loss what to do; a dance, however, commenced in great confusion.
While in this situation, fresh runners arrive declaring it to be a large house of
various colours, and crowded with living creatures. It appears now to be certain,
that it is the great Mannitto, bringing them some kind of game, such as he had
not given them before, but other runners soon after arriving declare that it is
positively a house full of human beings, of quite a different colour from that of
the Indians, and dressed differently from them; that in particular one of them was
dressed entirely in red, who must be the Mannitto himself. They are hailed from
the vessel in a language they do not understand, yet they shout or yell in return
by way of answer, according to the custom of their country; many are for run-
ning off to the woods, but are pressed by others to stay, in order not to give
offence to their visitor, who might find them out and destroy them. The house,
some say, large canoe, at last stops, and a canoe of a smaller size comes on shore
with the red man, and some others in it; some stay with his canoe to guard it.
John Heckewelder, “Indian Tradition of the First Arrival of the Dutch on Manhattan Island,” Collections of the New-York
Historical Society, I (1841), 69–74.
CONQUEST AND COLLIDING WORLDS
11
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The chiefs and wise men, assembled in council, form themselves into a large
circle, towards which the man in red clothes approaches with two others. He
salutes them with a friendly countenance, and they return the salute after their
manner. They are lost in admiration; the dress, the manners, the whole appear-
ance of the unknown strangers is to them a subject of wonder; but they are par-
ticularly struck with him who wore the red coat all glittering with gold lace,
which they could in no manner account for. He, surely, must be the great
Mannitto, but why should he have a white skin? Meanwhile, a large Hackhack
is brought by one of his servants, from which an unknown substance is poured
out into a small cup or glass, and handed to the supposed Mannitto. He drinks—
has the glass filled again, and hands it to the chief standing next to him. The
chief receives it, but only smells the contents and passes it on to the next chief,
who does the same. The glass or cup thus passes through the circle, without the
liquor being tasted by any one, and is upon the point of being returned to the
red clothed Mannitto, when one of the Indians, a brave men and a great warrior,
suddenly jumps up and harangues the assembly on the impropriety of returning
the cup with its contents. It was handed to them, says he, by the Mannitto, that
they should drink out of it, as he himself had done. To follow his example
would be pleasing to him; but to return what he had given them might provoke
his wrath, and bring destruction on them. And since the orator believed it for the
good of the nation that the contents offered them should be drunk, and as no
one else would do it, he would drink it himself, let the consequence be what it
might; it was better for one man to die, than that a whole nation should be
destroyed. He then took the glass, and bidding the assembly a solemn farewell,
at once drank up its whole contents. Every eye was fixed on the resolute chief,
to see what effect the unknown liquor would produce. He soon began to stag-
ger, and at last fell prostrate on the ground. His companions now bemoan his
fate, he falls into a sound sleep, and they think he has expired. He wakes again,
jumps up and declares, that he has enjoyed the most delicious sensations, and that
he never before felt himself so happy as after he had drunk the cup. He asks for
more, his wish is granted; the whole assembly then imitate him, and all become
intoxicated.
After this general intoxication had ceased, for they say that while it lasted the
whites had confined themselves to their vessel, the man with the red clothes
returned again, and distributed presents among them, consisting of beads, axes,
hoes, and stockings such as the white people wear. They soon became familiar
with each other, and began to converse by signs. The Dutch made them under-
stand that they would not stay here, that they would return home again, but
would pay them another visit the next year, when they would bring them
more presents, and stay with them awhile: but as they could not live without
eating, they should want a little land of them to sow seeds, in order to raise herbs
and vegetables to put into their broth. They went away as they had said, and
returned in the following season, when both parties were much rejoiced to see
each other…. As the whites became daily more familiar with the Indians, they at
last proposed to stay with them, and asked only for so much ground for a garden
spot as, they said, the hide of a bullock would cover or encompass, which hide
12 MAJOR PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
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