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Advanced Placement United States History
Summer Assignment 2015
Welcome to APUSH!
Congratulations on your decision to take Advanced Placement United States History. The AP course of study is a comprehensive
view of American history, dating from foundations in 1450 to modern era 1990s. Your grade will be based on any combination of
the following assessments: class participation, quizzes on textbook & outside readings, multiple choice and short answer tests,
essays, Socratic seminars, a semester project, and/or a portfolio of work. The course is designed to give you the knowledge and
skills to successfully take the AP exam and prepare you for college level course expectations. The AP exam assesses your
knowledge of content, analytical skills, and writing ability, and consists of 55 multiple choice questions, 4 short answer responses,
a long essay, and a document based question essay.
Summer Assignment: Reading Guides, Essays, and Questions are all included in this packet.
Part I: Textbook & Notes
Bailey, Thomas, Lizabeth Cohen, and David M. Kennedy. The American Pageant: A History of the Republic. 12th ed.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.
Students must check out the American Pageant from the Media Center, or reference online. You may consider
purchasing your own copy of the American Pageant. Look for used or new copies on Amazon or other websites.
In order to provide a strong foundation in APUSH and allow for review time prior to the exam in May, students are
expected to complete the reading and notes for chapters 1-3 prior to the first day of school. Complete the vocabulary and
short answer response questions; answer the attached questions in complete sentences. All work must be handwritten and
in blue or black ink. Typed work will NOT be accepted.
Formative assessments on this material will begin the first full week of school; summative assessments will begin the
third week of school.
In addition, another option for review, but not exclusive content material is the website http://www.apnotes.net. The site
is mostly aligned with the textbook and provides a guided outline per chapter, as well as mini-quizzes for review.
Ultimately, you will be able to complete most—but not all—of the assignment prior to receiving a school copy of the text.
APUSH Review Book
Students should purchase the Newman & Schmalbach US History Review Book (commonly known as the Flag Book)
also provides an overview of vocabulary and key concepts to help prepare for the APUSH course and exam. This book is
available via the publisher, on used book sites, and from former APUSHers, although editions printed prior to 2015 are
not up to date with recent changes to the APUSH exam. To order the text you can Google AMSCO Flag Book, or refer to
AMSCO:
United States History: Preparing for the Advanced Placement Examination available @ http://www.amscopub.com/
Part II: Required Summer Reading
In addition to the assigned textbook reading, you are required to read the following essays and answer provided questions.
1.
2.
3.
Christopher Columbus, Letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez
Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies
Howard Zinn, Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress
You will be assessed on this work. All work must be handwritten and in blue or black ink. Typed work will NOT be
accepted. Formative assessments on this material will begin the first full week of school; summative assessments will
begin the third week of school.
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APUSH Reading Guides Chapters 1-3 & Short Answer Responses
CHAPTER 1: NEW WORLD BEGINNINGS: 33,000 B.C.—A.D. 1769
Vocabulary
Maize
Aztecs
Incas
Pueblo
Mound Builders
Three-sister Farming
Cherokee
Iroquois
Impact of Corn, Potatoes, Sugar, Horses, Smallpox
"Reconquista"
mestizo
Hernan Cortes
Tenochtitlan
Montezuma
John Cabot
Giovanni da Verazano
Jacques Cartier
St. Augustine
New Mexico
Pope's Rebellion
Mission Indians
Black Legend
After reading chapter 1, answer the following questions in complete sentences. All work should be handwritten and in blue
or black ink.
1.
2.
3.
Describe the origin and development of the major native Indian cultures of the Americas.
Explain the developments in Europe and Africa that led to Columbus’ voyage to America.
How did the discovery of gold and silver in South America fuel the capitalist revolution in the late 18 th and early 19th
centuries?
4. Explain the positive and negative effects of the Columbian Exchange (aka Atlantic Exchange) on the New World, Old
World, and Africa.
5. Explain what two counties led the way in early exploration and why they were able to do so.
6. Explain the changes and conflicts that occurred when the diverse worlds of Europe, Africa, and the Americas collided in
1492.
7. Describe the Spanish conquest of Mexico and South America and identify the major features of Spanish colonization and
expansion in North America.
8. What is the “Black Legend,” and to what extent does our text agree with it?
9. What was the effect of Pope’s Rebellion?
10. What fundamental factors drew the Europeans to the exploration and settlement of the New World?
11. Is it correct to say the Europeans “discovered” the New World? Explain.
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CHAPTER 2: THE PLANTING OF ENGLISH AMERICA: 1500—1733
Vocabulary
Queen Elizabeth
Catholic Ireland
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Walter Raleigh
Virginia, Roanoke
Spanish Armada
Enclosure Movement
Primogeniture
joint-stock company
Virginia Company
Jamestown
John Smith
Powhatan
Pocahontas
Starving Time
Lord De La Warr
Powhatan's Confederacy
Anglo-Powhatan Wars
John Rolfe
House of Burgesses
Lord Baltimore
Indentured Servants
Act of Toleration
West Indies & Sugar
African Diaspora
Barbados Slave Code
Tuscarora Indians
James Oglethorpe
The Iroquois Confederacy
Deganawidah
Hiawatha
Five Nations
After reading chapter 2, answer the following questions in complete sentences. All work should be handwritten and in blue
or black ink.
1.
2.
3.
State the factors that led England to begin colonization.
Describe the development of Jamestown, from its disastrous beginnings to its later apparent prosperity.
Describe the cultural and social changes that Native American communities underwent in response to European
colonization.
4. Describe the different ways the Spanish, British, and French interacted with the Native Americans.
5. Describe the “starving time” winter of 1609-1610.
6. Describe the changes in the economy and labor system in Virginia and other southern colonies.
7. What factors contributed to the high death toll of Jamestown settlers?
8. How did Captain John Smith save Virginia colony from total collapse?
9. Indicate the similarities and differences among the southern colonies of Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South
Carolina, and Georgia.
10. How did the political structure of the Iroquois prove to be first a strength and ultimately a weakness?
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CHAPTER 3: SETTLING THE NORTHERN COLONIES: 1619—1700
Vocabulary
John Calvin
Conversion Experience
Visible Saints
Church of England
Puritans
Separatists
Mayflower Compact
Plymouth
William Bradford
Charles I
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Great Migration/Great Puritan Migration
John Winthrop
Bible Commonwealth
Anne Hutchinson
Antinomianism
Roger Williams
Rhode Island
Thomas Hooker
Fundamental Orders
Squanto
Massasoit
Pequot War
Praying Towns
Metacom
New England Confederation
Dominion of New England
Navigation Laws
Glorious Revolution
Salutary Neglect
Dutch East India Company
patroonship
Henry Hudson
New Amsterdam
New Sweden
Peter Stuyvesant
Duke of York
Quakers
William Penn
Delaware
Benjamin Franklin
After reading chapter 3, answer the following questions in complete sentences. All work should be handwritten and in blue
or black ink.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
Why did King James I oppose Separatists?
Describe the Puritans and their beliefs and explain why they left England for the New World.
Explain how conflict with religious dissenters, among other forces, led to the expansion of New England.
Describe the changing relations between the English colonists and Native Americans.
Why was King Philip’s War significant to the colonial development of New England?
Explain why the middle colonies became so ethnically, religiously, and politically diverse.
Describe the central features of the middle colonies and explain how they differed from New England.
What do the authors mean when the say that the middle colonies were the most American?
Compare and contrast the colonial settlement of Virginia and Massachusetts Bay.
To what extent was Massachusetts Bay simultaneously theocratic, democratic, oligarchic, and authoritarian?
Interpret and explain John Winthrop’s comment that Massachusetts Bay was to be “as a City upon a Hill” and “a beacon
to mankind.”
Part II: Essay Readings & Questions
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Answer the attached questions in complete sentences. All work must be handwritten and in blue or black ink. Typed work will
NOT be accepted.
Read Columbus’ letter to Lord Sanchez, 1493, and answer the following questions:
1.
What purpose does Columbus have in writing this letter?
2.
Identify Columbus’ point of view.
3.
Who is the intended audience of his letter?
4.
What is the context of Columbus’ letter to Sanchez?
5.
To what extent did Columbus and the Spaniards affect North America?
6.
How does Columbus describe the indigenous people? And himself?
Read Las Casas’ Account, 1542, and answer the following questions:
1.
What purpose does las Casas have in writing the Account?
2.
Identify Las Casas’ point of view.
3.
Who is the intended audience?
4.
What is the context of Las Casas’ Account?
5.
How does Las Casas describe the Spaniards impact on North America?
6.
To what extent is this account similar to Columbus’ letter?
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Christopher Columbus, Letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez, 14 March 1493
Letter addressed to the noble Lord Raphael Sanchez, Treasurer to their most invincible Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella,
King and Queen of Spain, by Christopher Columbus, to whom our age is greatly indebted, treating of the islands of India
secently discovered beyond the Ganges, to explore which he had been sent eight months before under the auspices and at the
expense of their said Majesties.
KNOWING that it will afford you pleasure to learn that I have brought my undertaking to a successful termination, I have
decided upon writing you this letter to acquaint you with all the events which have occurred in my voyage, and the discoveries
which have resulted from it.
Thirty-three days after my departure from Cadiz I reached the Indian sea, where I discovered many islands, thickly peopled, of
which I took possession without resistance in the name of our most illustrious Monarch, by public proclamation and with
unfurled banners. To the first of these islands, which is called by the Indians Guanahani, I gave the name of the blessed
Saviour (San Salvador), relying upon whose protection I had reached this as well as the other islands; to each of these I also
gave a name, ordering that one should be called Santa Maria de la Concepcion, another Fernandina, the third Isabella, the
fourth Juana, and so with all the rest respectively.
As soon as we arrived at that, which as I have said was named Juana, I proceeded along its coast a short distance westward,
and found it to be so large and apparently without termination, that I could not suppose it to be an island, but the continental
province of Cathay. Seeing, however, no towns or populous places on the sea coast, but only a few detached houses and
cottages, with whose inhabitants I was unable to communicate, because they fled as soon as they saw us, I went further on,
thinking that in my progress I should certainly find some city or village. At length, after proceeding a great way and finding
that nothing new presented itself, and that the line of coast was leading us northwards (which I wished to avoid, because it was
winter, and it was my intention to move southwards; and because moreover the winds were contrary), I resolved not to attempt
any further progress, but rather to turn back and retrace my course to a certain bay that I had observed, and from which I
afterwards dispatched two of our men to ascertain whether there were a king or any cities in that province. These men
reconnoitered the country for three days, and found a most numerous population, and great numbers of houses, though small,
and built without any regard to order: with which information they returned to us.
In the mean time I had learned from some Indians whom I had seized, that that country was certainly an island: and therefore I
sailed towards the east, coasting to the distance of three hundred and twenty- two miles, which brought us to the extremity of
it; from this point I saw lying eastwards another island, fifty-four miles distant from Juana, to which I gave the name of
Espanola: I went thither, and steered my course eastward as I had done at Juana, even to the distance of five hundred and
sixty-four miles along the north coast.
This said island of Juana is exceedingly fertile, as indeed are all the others; it is surrounded with many bays, spacious, very
secure, and surpassing any that I have ever seen; numerous large and healthful rivers intersect it, and it also contains many
very lofty mountains. All these islands are very beautiful, and distinguished by a diversity of scenery; they are filled with a
great variety of trees of immense height, and which I believe to retain their foliage in all seasons; for when I saw them they
were as verdant and luxuriant as they usually are in Spain in the month of May,--some of them were blossoming, some bearing
fruit, and all flourishing in the greatest perfection, according to their respective stages of growth, and the nature and quality of
each: yet the islands are not so thickly wooded as to be impassable. The nightingale and various birds were singing in
countless numbers, and that in November, the month in which I arrived there. There are besides in the same island of Juana
seven or eight kinds of palm trees, which, like all the other trees, herbs, and fruits, considerably surpass ours in height and
beauty. The pines also are very handsome, and there are very extensive fields and meadows, a variety of birds, different kinds
of honey, and many sorts of metals, but no iron.
In that island also which I have before said we named Espanola, there are mountains of very great size and beauty, vast plains,
groves, and very fruitful fields, admirably adapted for tillage, pasture, and habitation. The convenience and excellence of the
harbours in this island, and the abundance of the rivers, so indispensable to the health of man, surpass anything that would be
believed by one who had not seen it. The trees, herbage, and fruits of Espanola are very different from those of Juana, and
moreover it abounds in various kinds of spices, gold, and other metals.
The inhabitants of both sexes in this island, and in all the others which I have seen, or of which I have received information, go
always naked as they were born, with the exception of some of the women, who use the covering of a leaf, or small bough, or
an apron of cotton which they prepare for that purpose. None of them, as I have already said, are possessed of any iron, neither
have they weapons, being unacquainted with, and indeed incompetent to use them, not from any deformity of body (for they
are well-formed), but because they are timid and full of fear. They carry however in lieu of arms, canes dried in the sun, on the
ends of which they fix heads of dried wood sharpened to a point, and even these they dare not use habitually; for it has often
occurred when I have sent two or three of my men to any of the villages to speak with the natives, that they have come out in a
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disorderly troop, and have fled in such haste at the approach of our men, that the fathers forsook their children and the children
their fathers. This timidity did not arise from any loss or injury that they had received from us; for, on the contrary, I gave to
all I approached whatever articles I had about me, such as cloth and many other things, taking nothing of theirs in return: but
they are naturally timid and fearful. As soon however as they see that they are safe, and have laid aside all fear, they are very
simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have; none of them refusing any thing he may possess when he is
asked for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. They exhibit great love towards all others in preference to themselves:
they also give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little or nothing in return. I however forbad
that these trifles and articles of no value (such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather straps) should be given to
them, although if they could obtain them, they imagined themselves to be possessed of the most beautiful trinkets in the world.
It even happened that a sailor received for a leather strap as much gold as was worth three golden nobles, and for things of
more trifling value offered by our men, especially newly coined blancas, or any gold coins, the Indians would give whatever
the seller required; as, for instance, an ounce and a half or two ounces of gold, or thirty or forty pounds of cotton, with which
commodity they were already acquainted. Thus they bartered, like idiots,cotton and gold for fragments of bows, glasses,
bottles, and jars; which I forbad as being unjust, and myself gave them many beautiful and acceptable articles which I had
brought with me, taking nothing from them in return; I did this in order that I might the more easily conciliate them, that they
might be led to become Christians, and be inclined to entertain a regard for the King and Queen, our Princes and all Spaniards,
and that I might induce them to take an interest in seeking out, and collecting, and delivering to us such things as they
possessed in abundance, but which we greatly needed.
They practice no kind of idolatry, but have a firm belief that all strength and power, and indeed all good things, are in heaven,
and that I had descended from thence with these ships and sailors, and under this impression was I received after they had
thrown aside their fears. Nor are they slow or stupid, but of very clear understanding; and those men who have crossed to the
neighbouring islands give an admirable description of everything they observed; but they never saw any people clothed, nor
any ships like ours.
On my arrival at that sea, I had taken some Indians by force from the first island that I came to, in order that they might learn
our language, and communicate to us what they knew respecting the country; which plan succeeded excellently, and was a
great advantage to us, for in a short time, either by gestures and signs, or by words, we were enabled to understand each other.
These men are still travelling with me, and although they have been with us now a long time, they continue to entertain the
idea that I have descended from heaven; and on our arrival at any new place they published this, crying out immediately with a
loud voice to the other Indians, "Come, come and look upon beings of a celestial race": upon which both women and men,
children and adults, young men and old, when they got rid of the fear they at first entertained, would come out in throngs,
crowding the roads to see us, some bringing food, others drink, with astonishing affection and kindness.
Each of these islands has a great number of canoes, built of solid wood, narrow and not unlike our double- banked boats in
length and shape, but swifter in their motion: they steer them only by the oar. These canoes are of various sizes, but the greater
number are constructed with eighteen banks of oars, and with these they cross to the other islands, which are of countless
number, to carry on traffic with the people. I saw some of these canoes that held as many as seventy-eight rowers.
In all these islands there is no difference of physiognomy, of manners, or of language, but they all clearly understand each
other, a circumstance very propitious for the realization of what I conceive to be the principal wish of our most serene King,
namely, the conversion of these people to the holy faith of Christ, to which indeed, as far as I can judge, they are very
favourable and well-disposed.
These provinces extend to a hundred and fifty-three miles in length, as I have learnt from the Indians whom I have brought
with me, and who are well acquainted with the country. But the extent of Espanola is greater than all Spain from Catalonia to
Fontarabia, which is easily proved, because one of its four sides which I myself coasted in a direct line, from west to east,
measures five hundred and forty miles. This island is to be regarded with especial interest, and not to be slighted; for although
as I have said I took possession of all these islands in the name of our invincible King, and the government of them is
unreservedly committed to his said Majesty, yet there was one large town in Espanola of which especially I took possession,
situated in a remarkably favourable spot, and in every way convenient for the purposes of gain and commerce.
To this town I gave the name of Navidad del Senor, and ordered a fortress to be built there, which must by this time be
completed, in which I left as many men as I thought necessary, with all sorts of arms, and enough provisions for more than a
year. I also left them one caravel, and skilful workmen both in ship-building and other arts, and engaged the favor and
friendship of the King of the island in their behalf, to a degree that would not be believed, for these people are so amiable and
friendly that even the King took a pride in calling me his brother. But supposing their feelings should become changed, and
they should wish to injure those who have remained in the fortress, they could not do so, for they have no arms, they go naked,
and are moreover too cowardly; ao that those who hold the said fortress, can easily keep the whole island in check, without
any pressing danger to themaelves, provided they do not transgress the directions and regulations which I have given them.
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As far as I have learned, every man throughout these islands is united to but one wife, with the exception of the kings and
princes, who are allowed to have twenty: the women seem to work more than the men. I could not clearly understand whether
the people possess any private property, for I observed that one man had the charge of distributing various things to the rest,
but especially meat and provisions and the like. I did not find, as some of us had expected, any cannibals amongst them, but on
the contrary men of great deference and kindness. Neither are they black, like the Ethiopians: their hair is smooth and straight:
for they do not dwell where the rays of the sun strike most vividly,--and the sun has intense power there, the distance from the
equinoctial line being, it appears, but six-and-twenty degrees. On the tops of the mountains the cold is very great, but the effect
of this upon the Indians is lessened by their being accustomed to the climate, and by their frequently indulging in the use of
very hot meats and drinks. Thus, as I have already said, I saw no cannibals, nor did I hear of any, except in a certain island
called Charis, which is the second from Espanola on the side towards India, where dwell a people who are considered by the
neighbouring islanders as most ferocious: and these feed upon human flesh. The same people have many kinds of canoes, in
which they cross to all the surrounding islands and rob and plunder wherever they can; they are not different from the other
islanders, except that they wear their hair long, like women, and make use of the bows and javelins of cane, with sharpened
spear-points fixed on the thickest end, which I have before described, and therefore they are looked upon as ferocious, and
regarded by the other Indians with unbounded fear; but I think no more of them than of the rest. These are the men who form
unions with certain women, who dwell alone in the island Matenin, which lies next to Espanola on the side towards India;
these latter employ themselves in no labour suitable to their own sex, for they use bows and javelins as I have already
described their paramours as doing, and for defensive armour have plates of brass, of which metal they possess great
abundance. They assure me that there is another island larger than Espanola, whose inhabitants have no hair, and which
abounds in gold more than any of the rest. I bring with me individuals of this island and of the others that I have seen, who are
proofs of the facts which I state.
Finally, to compress into few words the entire summary of my voyage and speedy return, and of the advantages derivable
therefrom, I promise, that with a little assistance afforded me by our most invincible sovereigns, I will procure them as much
gold as they need, as great a quantity of spices, of cotton, and of mastic (which is only found in Chios), and as many men for
the service of the navy as their Majesties may require. I promise also rhubarb and other sorts of drugs, which I am persuaded
the men whom I have left in the aforesaid fortress have found already and will continue to find; for I myself have tarried no
where longer than I was compelled to do by the winds, except in the city of Navidad, while I provided for the building of the
fortress, and took the necessary precautions for the perfect security of the men I left there. Although all I have related may
appear to be wonderful and unheard of, yet the results of my voyage would have been more astonishing if I had had at my
disposal such ships as I required. But these great and marvellous results are not to be attributed to any merit of mine, but to the
holy Christian faith, and to the piety and religion of our Sovereigns; for that which the unaided intellect of man could not
compass, the spirit of God has granted to human exertions, for God is wont to hear the prayers of his servants who love his
precepts even to the performance of apparent impossibilities. Thus it has happened to me in the present instance, who have
accomplished a task to which the powers of mortal men had never hitherto attained; for if there have been those who have
anywhere written or spoken of these islands, they have done so with doubts and conjectures, and no one has ever asserted that
he has seen them, on which account their writings have been looked upon as little else than fables. Therefore let the king and
queen, our princes and their most happy kingdoms, and all the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, who has granted us so great a victory and such prosperity. Let processions be made, and sacred feasts be
held, and the temples be adorned with festive boughs. Let Christ rejoice on earth, as he rejoices in heaven in the prospect of
the salvation of the souls of so many nations hitherto lost. Let us also rejoice, as well on account of the exaltation of our faith,
as on account of the increase of our temporal prosperity, of which not only Spain, but all Christendom will be partakers.
Such are the events which I have briefly described.
Farewell.
Lisbon, the 14th of March.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,
Admiral of the Fleet of the Ocean.
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Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542)
The Indies were discovered in the year one thousand four hundred and ninety-two. In the following year a great many Spaniards
went there with the intention of settling the land. Thus, forty-nine years have passed since the first settlers penetrated the land, the
first so claimed being the large and most happy isle called Hispaniola, which is six hundred leagues in circumference. Around it in
all directions are many other islands, some very big, others very small, and all of them were, as we saw with our own eyes, densely
populated with native peoples called Indians. This large island was perhaps the most densely populated place in the world. There
must be close to two hundred leagues of land on this island, and the seacoast has been explored for more than ten thousand leagues,
and each day more of it is being explored. And all the land so far discovered is a beehive of people; it is as though God had
crowded into these lands the great majority of mankind.
And of all the infinite universe of humanity, these people are the most guileless, the most devoid of wickedness and duplicity, the
most obedient and faithful to their native masters and to the Spanish Christians whom they serve. They are by nature the most
humble, patient, and peaceable, holding no grudges, free from embroilments, neither excitable nor quarrelsome. These people are
the most devoid of rancors, hatreds, or desire for vengeance of any people in the world. And because they are so weak and
complaisant, they are less able to endure heavy labor and soon die of no matter what malady. The sons of nobles among us,
brought up in the enjoyments of life's refinements, are no more delicate than are these Indians, even those among them who are of
the lowest rank of laborers. They are also poor people, for they not only possess little but have no desire to possess worldly goods.
For this reason they are not arrogant, embittered, or greedy. Their repasts are such that the food of the holy fathers in the desert can
scarcely be more parsimonious, scanty, and poor. As to their dress, they are generally naked, with only their pudenda covered
somewhat. And when they cover their shoulders it is with a square cloth no more than two varas in size. They have no beds, but
sleep on a kind of matting or else in a kind of suspended net called bamacas. They are very clean in their persons, with alert,
intelligent minds, docile and open to doctrine, very apt to receive our holy Catholic faith, to be endowed with virtuous customs,
and to behave in a godly fashion. And once they begin to hear the tidings of the Faith, they are so insistent on knowing more and
on taking the sacraments of the Church and on observing the divine cult that, truly, the missionaries who are here need to be
endowed by God with great patience in order to cope with such eagerness. Some of the secular Spaniards who have been here for
many years say that the goodness of the Indians is undeniable and that if this gifted people could be brought to know the one true
God they would be the most fortunate people in the world.
Yet into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild
beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days. And Spaniards have behaved in no other way during tla! past
forty years, down to the present time, for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and
destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of
before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than
three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons.
The island of Cuba is nearly as long as the distance between Valladolid and Rome; it is now almost completely depopulated. San
Juan [Puerto Rico] and Jamaica are two of the largest, most productive and attractive islands; both are now deserted and
devastated. On the northern side of Cuba and Hispaniola he the neighboring Lucayos comprising more than sixty islands including
those called Gigantes, beside numerous other islands, some small some large. The least felicitous of them were more fertile and
beautiful than the gardens of the King of Seville. They have the healthiest lands in the world, where lived more than five hundred
thousand souls; they are now deserted, inhabited by not a single living creature. All the people were slain or died after being taken
into captivity and brought to the Island of Hispaniola to be sold as slaves. More than thirty other islands in the vicinity of San Juan
are for the most part and for the same reason depopulated, and the land laid waste. On these islands I estimate there are 2,100
leagues of land that have been ruined and depopulated, empty of people. As for the vast mainland, which is ten times larger than all
Spain, even including Aragon and Portugal, containing more land than the distance between Seville and Jerusalem, or more than
two thousand leagues, we are sure that our Spaniards, with their cruel and abominable acts, have devastated the land and
exterminated the rational people who fully inhabited it. We can estimate very surely and truthfully that in the forty years that have
passed, with the infernal actions of the Christians, there have been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and
children. In truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain is more like fifteen million.
The common ways mainly employed by the Spaniards who call themselves Christian and who have gone there to extirpate those
pitiful nations and wipe them off the earth is by unjustly waging cruel and bloody wars. Then, when they have slain all those who
fought for their lives or to escape the tortures they would have to endure, that is to say, when they have slain all the native rulers
and young men (since the Spaniards usually spare only the women and children, who are subjected to the hardest and bitterest
servitude ever suffered by man or beast), they enslave any survivors. With these infernal methods of tyranny they debase and
weaken countless numbers of those pitiful Indian nations.
Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to
acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits.
It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies.
And also, those lands are so rich and felicitous, the native peoples so meek and patient, so easy to subject, that our Spaniards have
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no more consideration for them than beasts. And I say this from my own knowledge of the acts I witnessed. But I should not say
"than beasts" for, thanks be to God, they have treated beasts with some respect; I should say instead like excrement on the public
squares. And thus they have deprived the Indians of their lives and souls, for the millions I mentioned have died without the Faith
and without the benefit of the sacraments. This is a wellknown and proven fact which even the tyrant Governors, themselves
killers, know and admit. And never have the Indians in all the Indies committed any act against the Spanish Christians, until those
Christians have first and many times committed countless cruel aggressions against them or against neighboring nations. For in the
beginning the Indians regarded the Spaniards as angels from Heaven. Only after the Spaniards had used violence against them,
killing, robbing, torturing, did the Indians ever rise up against them....
On the Island Hispaniola was where the Spaniards first landed, as I have said. Here those Christians perpetrated their first ravages
and oppressions against the native peoples. This was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the
Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and children, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill
use them, eating the food they provided with their sweat and toil. The Spaniards did not content themselves with what the Indians
gave them of their own free will, according to their ability, which was always too little to satisfy enormous appetites, for a
Christian eats and consumes in one day an amount of food that would suffice to feed three houses inhabited by ten Indians for one
month. And they committed other acts of force and violence and oppression which made the Indians realize that these men had not
come from Heaven. And some of the Indians concealed their foods while others concealed their wives and children and still others
fled to the mountains to avoid the terrible transactions of the Christians. And the Christians attacked them with buffets and
beatings, until finally they laid hands on the nobles of the villages. Then they behaved with such temerity and shamelessness that
the most powerful ruler of the islands had to see his own wife raped by a Christian officer.
From that time onward the Indians began to seek ways to throw the Christians out of their lands. They took up arms, but their
weapons were very weak and of little service in offense and still less in defense. (Because of this, the wars of the Indians against
each other are little more than games played by children.) And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to
carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor
pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing
with sheep in the slaughter house. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off
his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by
the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with
laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, "Boil there, you offspring of the devil!" Other infants they put to the sword
along with their mothers and anyone else who happened to be nearby. They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged
victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve
Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive. To others they attached straw or wrapped their whole
bodies in straw and set them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them
round the victim's neck, saying, "Go now, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the
mountains. They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in the following way: they made a grid of rods which they placed on
forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives
screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them....
After the wars and the killings had ended, when usually there survived only some boys, some women, and children, these survivors
were distributed among the Christians to be slaves. The repartimiento or distribution was made according to the rank and
importance of the Christian to whom the Indians were allocated, one of them being given thirty, another forty, still another, one or
two hundred, and besides the rank of the Christian there was also to be considered in what favor he stood with the tyrant they
called Governor. The pretext was that these allocated Indians were to be instructed in the articles of the Christian Faith. As if those
Christians who were as a rule foolish and cruel and greedy and vicious could be caretakers of souls! And the care they took was to
send the men to the mines to dig for gold, which is intolerable labor, and to send the women into the fields of the big ranches to
hoe and till the land, work suitable for strong men. Nor to either the men or the women did they give any food except herbs and
legumes, things of little substance. The milk in the breasts of the women with infants dried up and thus in a short while the infants
perished. And since men and women were separated, there could be no marital relations. And the men died in the mines and the
women died on the ranches from the same causes, exhaustion and hunger. And thus was depopulated that island which had been
densely populated.
Source: Bartoleme de Las Casas, Brief Account of the Devastation of the Indies. (1542)