Western History is incomplete without Howard Zinn.
Thanks to Howard Zinn, more people learned about "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies", a first hand witness account, written in 1542 by Bartolomé de las Casas, describing conditions of very early enslavement of the native people in Hispaniola, Cuba, and the Caribbean. Since…
Western History is incomplete without Howard Zinn.
Thanks to Howard Zinn, more people learned about "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies", a first hand witness account, written in 1542 by Bartolomé de las Casas, describing conditions of very early enslavement of the native people in Hispaniola, Cuba, and the Caribbean. Since gold was not found, and the Crown had to find a way to pay for these ever expanding expeditions to the west Indies. Native people were forced into slave labor camps (plantations) for exploitation to produce crops like sugar and food staples, sent back to Europe for profit. The natives ran away, they resisted, they were horribly abused, and so many died of disease during this horrible era of genocide by the Spanish Colonization, that Africans began to be enslaved and brought to the Western Hemisphere to replace the "native work force". Zinn introduced us to one of the first abolitionist movements in mid 1500's. In a way, the root of what was to come in the Southern United States.
So any history of North & South America is incomplete with Howard Zinn and Bartolomé de las Casas. The same could be said of the 1619 Project for America.
In his own words, "My history describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism (Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses), of the labor organizers who have led strikes for the rights of working people (Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, César Chávez), of the socialists and others who have protested war and militarism (Eugene V. Debs, Helen Keller, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Cindy Sheehan). My hero is not Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and congratulated a general after a massacre of Filipino villagers at the turn of the century, but Mark Twain, who denounced the massacre and satirized imperialism.[11][12] I want young people to understand that ours is a beautiful country, but it has been taken over by men who have no respect for human rights or constitutional liberties. Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says that all of us have an equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The history of our country, I point out in my book, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to make those ideals a reality—and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in becoming part of that."
Bartolomé de las Casas was less gracious describing the horrible conditions of enslavement and petitioned the crowns for more humane treatment of the Native Peoples of the Caribbean.
Zinn is slanted, only towards justice and the idea that we still striving to reach the ideals in our Declaration of Independence.
OMGosh. I can't thank you enough for your comment. Who thought we'd have to defend Zinn, here.
Perhaps you know that Mark Twain wrote an essay on lynching. I did not until I came across it. Twain was horrified by lynchings and the mob mentality. He spoke of how a few courageous individual police officers had stood up to mobs and stopped lynchings.
I am pasting in the Wiki entry.
" The United States of Lyncherdom" is an essay by Mark Twain written in 1901.[1] He wrote it in response to the mass lynchings in Pierce City, Missouri, of Will Godley, his grandfather French Godley, and Eugene Carter (also known as Barrett). The three African Americans were accused in the rape and murder there of Gazelle Wild (or Casselle Wilds) on August 19, 1901,[2] Twain blamed lynching in the United States on the herd mentality that prevails among Americans.[1] Twain decided that the country was not ready for the essay, and shelved it.[1]
Thomas Beloat was a sheriff of Gibson County, Indiana at the turn of the 20th century noted for stopping a lynching in the county seat of Princeton
A redacted version was published in 1923, when Twain's literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, slipped it into a posthumous collection, Europe and Elsewhere.[1] In his essay, Twain noted two law enforcement officials who had intervened and prevented lynchings in early 20th-century America. They were Sheriff Joseph Merrill of Carroll County, Georgia,[3] and Thomas Beloat of Gibson County, Indiana.[3]"
Western History is incomplete without Howard Zinn.
Thanks to Howard Zinn, more people learned about "A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies", a first hand witness account, written in 1542 by Bartolomé de las Casas, describing conditions of very early enslavement of the native people in Hispaniola, Cuba, and the Caribbean. Since gold was not found, and the Crown had to find a way to pay for these ever expanding expeditions to the west Indies. Native people were forced into slave labor camps (plantations) for exploitation to produce crops like sugar and food staples, sent back to Europe for profit. The natives ran away, they resisted, they were horribly abused, and so many died of disease during this horrible era of genocide by the Spanish Colonization, that Africans began to be enslaved and brought to the Western Hemisphere to replace the "native work force". Zinn introduced us to one of the first abolitionist movements in mid 1500's. In a way, the root of what was to come in the Southern United States.
So any history of North & South America is incomplete with Howard Zinn and Bartolomé de las Casas. The same could be said of the 1619 Project for America.
In his own words, "My history describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism (Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses), of the labor organizers who have led strikes for the rights of working people (Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, César Chávez), of the socialists and others who have protested war and militarism (Eugene V. Debs, Helen Keller, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Cindy Sheehan). My hero is not Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and congratulated a general after a massacre of Filipino villagers at the turn of the century, but Mark Twain, who denounced the massacre and satirized imperialism.[11][12] I want young people to understand that ours is a beautiful country, but it has been taken over by men who have no respect for human rights or constitutional liberties. Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says that all of us have an equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The history of our country, I point out in my book, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to make those ideals a reality—and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in becoming part of that."
Bartolomé de las Casas was less gracious describing the horrible conditions of enslavement and petitioned the crowns for more humane treatment of the Native Peoples of the Caribbean.
Zinn is slanted, only towards justice and the idea that we still striving to reach the ideals in our Declaration of Independence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolom%C3%A9_de_las_Casas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_Account_of_the_Destruction_of_the_Indies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_the_United_States
https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tTP1TcwyTWPLzFg9JLLyC9PLEpRqMrMy1NIVChIzS_ISVUvVsjILC7JL6oEACryDqk&q=howard+zinn+a+people%27s+history&oq=howard+zinn&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j46i433i512j46i512j0i512l4j46i512j0i512l2.4785j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
OMGosh. I can't thank you enough for your comment. Who thought we'd have to defend Zinn, here.
Perhaps you know that Mark Twain wrote an essay on lynching. I did not until I came across it. Twain was horrified by lynchings and the mob mentality. He spoke of how a few courageous individual police officers had stood up to mobs and stopped lynchings.
I am pasting in the Wiki entry.
" The United States of Lyncherdom" is an essay by Mark Twain written in 1901.[1] He wrote it in response to the mass lynchings in Pierce City, Missouri, of Will Godley, his grandfather French Godley, and Eugene Carter (also known as Barrett). The three African Americans were accused in the rape and murder there of Gazelle Wild (or Casselle Wilds) on August 19, 1901,[2] Twain blamed lynching in the United States on the herd mentality that prevails among Americans.[1] Twain decided that the country was not ready for the essay, and shelved it.[1]
Thomas Beloat was a sheriff of Gibson County, Indiana at the turn of the 20th century noted for stopping a lynching in the county seat of Princeton
A redacted version was published in 1923, when Twain's literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, slipped it into a posthumous collection, Europe and Elsewhere.[1] In his essay, Twain noted two law enforcement officials who had intervened and prevented lynchings in early 20th-century America. They were Sheriff Joseph Merrill of Carroll County, Georgia,[3] and Thomas Beloat of Gibson County, Indiana.[3]"
Looking forward to reading Twain’s essay. I don’t think I’ve ever heard this before. Another reason why $5 a month here is priceless.