Why did Columbus enslave Taínos?
AD 1493: Spanish settlers enslave the Taíno of Hispaniola Spanish colonists force the Native Taíno people, on pain of death, to perform almost all labor on the island. Christopher Columbus, who needs to demonstrate the wealth of the New World after finding no gold, loads his ship with enslaved Taíno people.
Who began the enslavement of the Tainos?
Europeans’ enslavement of Native Americans began with Columbus. As the governor of Hispaniola, he forced the Taino Indians to labor in the Spanish fields and mines, and he brought Taino slaves to Spain on his return journeys.
Did the Taíno have slaves?
The Taino had an elaborate system of religious beliefs and rituals that involved the worship of spirits (zemis) by means of carved representations. They also had a complex social order, with a government of hereditary chiefs and subchiefs and classes of nobles, commoners, and slaves.
What did Columbus say about the Taíno?
When Christopher Columbus arrived on the Bahamian Island of Guanahani (San Salvador) in 1492, he encountered the Taíno people, whom he described in letters as “naked as the day they were born.” The Taíno had complex hierarchical religious, political, and social systems.
What are Taínos known for?
Skilled at agriculture and hunting, Taínos were also good sailors, fishermen, canoe makers, and navigators. Their main crops were cassava, garlic, potatoes, yautías, mamey, guava, and anón.
What are Tainos known for?
Did the Spaniards enslave the Tainos?
In Haiti and the Dominican Republic (which they name Hispaniola), Spanish colonists force Taino people into slave labor, mutilate them, or kill them.
What is the Tainos culture?
Taíno culture as documented is believed to have developed in the Caribbean. The Taíno creation story says that they emerged from caves in a sacred mountain on present-day Hispaniola. In Puerto Rico, 21st-century studies have shown that a high proportion of people have Amerindian mtDNA.
What was the Tainos way of life?
The Taínos were farmers and fishers, and practiced intensive root crop cultivation in conucos, or small raised plots. Manioc was the principal crop, but potatoes, beans, peanuts, peppers and other plants were also grown. Farming was supplemented with the abundant fish and shellfish animal resources of the region.
What became of the Taíno?
The Taíno became nearly extinct as a culture following settlement by Spanish colonists, primarily due to infectious diseases to which they had no immunity. The first recorded smallpox outbreak in Hispaniola occurred in December 1518 or January 1519.
What does Taíno stand for?
Taíno: Indigenous Caribbeans. The Taíno were an Arawak people who were the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Florida. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), and Puerto Rico. In the Greater Antilles,…
What is the Taíno system of Labor?
This system of labor was part of the ‘ encomienda’- the strongest protecting the weak for the purpose of economic gain . Groups of people currently identify as Taíno, most notably among the Puerto Ricans and Dominicans, both on the islands and on United States mainland.
What did the Taíno do for a living?
The Taíno women were highly skilled in agriculture. The people depended on it, but the men also fished and hunted. They made fishing nets and ropes from cotton and palm. Their dugout canoes ( kanoa) were made in various sizes, which could hold from 2 to 150 people. An average-sized canoe would hold about 15–20 people.
Who were the Tainos in the Caribbean?
Taino, Arawakan-speaking people who at the time of Columbus’s exploration inhabited what are now Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Once the most numerous indigenous people of the Caribbean, the Taino may have numbered one or two million at the time of the Spanish conquest. Taino | History & Culture | Britannica