Zinn Ch. 1

Howard Zinn’s main idea in the chapter entitled Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress in his book A People’s History of the United States focused on the Indians’ point-of-view of Columbus finding the Caribbean islands. However, he wanted to make sure that he was not trying to show remorse for the Indians, but he focused more on the idea of showing the other side of the story than what is normally taught to children. He tries to see how sometimes human pain and suffering may be essential for human progress/development to take place. He elaborated on the effects that Columbus had on the Arawak Indians, which included slavery, murder, torture, etc, and their eventual distinction. Through what Zinn said about Columbus, it may seem to the reader that Columbus’ sole motive was money and wealth, and that he would kill and enslave innocent people in order to get him what he wanted. Toward the end of the chapter, Zinn did mention the idea that such actions toward certain populations throughout history may have been necessary for people to get to where they are today. Also, he stated that the population being victimized might not be the only ones hurt. The group doing such negative actions may inevitably be the ones more hurt. So by saying this information it made me wonder such questions like what would the world be like if Columbus had not enslaved and killed the Arawak Indians? Was this necessary for the current human civilization to be as cultured and material-based as it currently is? Is the government unable to admit what was done to the original inhabitants of America? Overall, I have heard such information regarding Christopher Columbus and the start of America with the torture and killing of the Native Americans. Such information is not talked about nor taught to children. I believe that this story should be taught to children growing up. I feel sometimes that America has trouble admitting when it did something wrong to certain cultural groups. The Thanksgiving story for example is based on the idea that the Native Americans and Pilgrims were friends and could get along. But unfortunately this was not the case. Zinn what trying to get across the idea that history can be skewed by looking at only side population’s side of the happening. To be accurate with a historic event both sides of the story need to be examined.