American Holocaust

AMERICAN HOLOCAUST

The other side of the story to our great American history is not as pretty as they teach us in grade school. The American Holocaust by David Stannard is a novel full of live excerpts from eyewitnesses to the genocide of the American Indians. He goes as far as to describe what life was most likely like before Europeans came to the Americas and obliterated the “Paradise” so described. Columbus even wrote how beautiful the places were in which he committed acts against the Natives so horrific, it was hard to read about, let alone talk about. The Natives were so innocent and naive, that when Columbus would “show them his sword” they would grab the end and in effect slice open their hand. These people had no chance of survival once the Europeans came with their EXTREME religious ideals and power hungry minds. Stannard’s strength in his work is how he gives detailed accounts of incidents to back up his theories. The only weakness of his book is that there were times when further description was unnecessary. There are only so many ways to describe babies getting their heads bashed against rocks, and he described every one of them. Perhaps it is more my weakness for reading about it then his weakness for writing it. Overall, this book ranges and compares major genocide throughout history from Nazi Germany to Stalin, and even compares how Europe was before Columbus was sent over. Stannard’s wide range of history is well put together in order to give the reader the full effect of how this “American Holocaust” came into effect.

The conquest of the America’s started with, basically , the pursuit of better trade and possibly more lands. When they found the Natives, friendly and wonderful, word got back about the Paradise which the men had found. However, word spread that such a place could be almost Satanic. Therefore, soon they started to see the Natives as demons which either had to be converted to had to be destroyed. By reading the “Requirmiento” in Spanish to the non-Spanish Indians, basically bypassed the conversion part and went straight to the “destroy” stage. Many of the leaders of these expeditions felt that it was God’s will that these people were so easy to kill and take over to make them slaves. Since the American Indians opened their arms to the Europeans, it showed that they were weaker and more naive. A horrific example is what happened to the Aztec’s when they opened their arms to Cortes and his soldiers. The Natives welcomed them into their ceremony, and when everyone became comfortable and were singing and dancing, they began their slaughter. Cutting off limbs and beheading the men, women, and children alike. This, the Europeans felt was God’s work in action? Religion is the number one killer of the human race, and it boggles my mind where the men would think of such horrific ways of torturing people. Then again, back in their homelands, Europeans everywhere were being accused of witchcraft if they were “too womanly” or just plain thought to be a demon.

Sin was almost sexual to Europeans back in those earlier centuries. You would never guess it by the way the raped women left and right. Women themselves were punished for being women. Men looked at a woman, and if he lusted for her, thought she was a witch casting a spell over him. In any case, religious ideology has been the basis for almost every massacre throughout history. Stannard speaks of the men who were so against sexual things were often the most “obsessed”. Men who gained power from being celibate for years and years, but in their mind were probably the most demented men alive. Columbus was a hand of that power who forced it unsuccessfully on the Natives, who in return, did nothing to them but offer them friendship and trust.

The graphic descriptions in which Stannard writes about throughout his whole book is not for the gentle stomachs. The atrocities committed by the various Europeans are anything but pure disgusting. I must say this was one of the hardest books to read. Reading is different then just a movie, because the imagery depends on your mind and how twisted one can picture these events taking place. The fact that our human mind can even imagine these horrifying images makes me sick as well. However, I do not feel that his book would have been as powerful if he hadn’t set out to shock the reader with these various accounts. When he started out by describing was what happening in Europe before they even traveled here, that was startling. When he described the disease that spread and how many people lived in those conditions, it is no wonder that most of these people were not right in the head. On the other hand, when arriving at a new place, if the towns people open their arms and