The American Holocaust By David Stannard

1) In the “American Holocaust” by David Stannard, Stannard points out how the Spaniards, British, and Americans were treating the indigenous people differently. In chapter 1 of the “American Holocaust,” Stannard talks about how the Europeans main goal was to find and acquire gold. When the Europeans began to arrive in America they began to discover a land that contained a variety of gold. Once they discovered that there was gold they began to establish and did not see the indigenous people as part of the land. Indigenous people were required to work in forced labor and take care of the land however they were not part of the land and did not have their own property, towns and villages. In the first chapter of the American Holocaust Stannard …show more content…

Their main goal was to gain power over their land. When the British colonists arrived at this land they brought many diseases and destroyed the lives of many Indians. This disease was called the Black Death. The Americans also mistreated the Indigenous not treating them equally. Stannard points out that the Americans wanted to defend themselves against the Indians and if the Indians tried to attack and fight them they were going to be ready to fight and attack them back. Stannard believes that the Americans want to defend and fight against the Indians. To demonstrate this point Stannard quotes Thomas Jefferson where Jefferson emphasizes these words “in war, they will kill some of us; we shall destroy all of them” (Stannard 120). By killing and destroying the Indians the British, Europeans, and Americans would become successful obtaining the land that they are fighting for. In his book, David Stannard states that when Christopher Columbus arrived in the Caribbean he believes he performed enormous acts of genocide. In the prologue, Stannard states that “this was the beginning of “far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world” (Stannard …show more content…

Genocide refers to the killing of large groups of people, especially among ethnic groups. Throughout the book, Stannard refers to genocide as a holocaust because throughout the history of the United States many ethnic groups were being killed and mistreated. A holocaust is described as a destruction caused by fire and nuclear war. In this case, the American holocaust occurred when Christopher Columbus and many Europeans began to kill Indians because their objective was to take the power of gold. According to Howard Zinn, author of the book “A people’s History of the United States” many Arawak men, children, and women were put on ships and were forced into labor. The Arawak began to form an army and defeat the Spaniards. In his book, Zinn describes the poor treatment that the Arawak were facing. Zinn states that “When it became clear that there was no gold left, the Indians were taken as slave labor” (Zinn Chapter 1). The Europeans, Spanish, French, British, and Americans each committed genocide by killing and mistreating the Indians who formed part of the land. Stannard describes what each group treated this minority group and why it was considered genocide. In his book, Stannard quotes Bartolome de las Casas who talks about the treatment. De las Casas says