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Megha Majumder 

1491 Quotes

“And sure it was God's good providence that we found this corn, for else we now not how we shouldhave done!"

#his $uote is important %ecause corn is a grain domesticated %& indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica in

 prehistoric times! #he leaf& stal produces ears which contain seeds called ernels! #hough technicall&a grain, maie ernels are used in cooing as a vegeta%le or starch! #he (lmec and Ma&ans cultivated it

in numerous varieties throughout Mesoamerica! )eginning a%out *+ )-, the crop spread through

much of the Americas! #he region developed a trade networ %ased on surplus and varieties of maiecrops! After .uropean contact with the Americas in the late 1+th and earl& 1/th centuries 0-hristopher

-olum%us, e2plorers and traders carried maie %ac to .urope and introduced it to other countries!

Maie spread to the rest of the world, and .urope, %ecause of its a%ilit& to grow in diverse climates, andwas a hard&, useful crop!

“All through the coastal forest the 3ndians had 'died on heapes, as the& la& in their houses and the %ones

and sulls upon the several places of their ha%itations made such a spectacles' that to #homas Mortonthe Massachusetts woods seemed to %e a 'new found Golgotha' the hill of e2ecutions in 5oman

6erusalem!"

7hen the first .uropeans settled in 8ew .ngland, the& %rought with them more than just strangecustoms and novel goodsthe& also carried .uropean diseases that spread rapidl& through 8ative

communities! 7ithin twent& &ears of the founding of :l&mouth -olon&, the :e$uots and other southern

 8ew .ngland 8ative groups had %een decimated %& virgin soil epidemicsout%reas of .uropeandiseases that 8ative people had never %efore encountered! #wo major epidemics occurred in southern

 8ew .ngland in the earl& 1;th centur&! #he first, possi%l& an out%rea of %u%onic plague, too place

during the &ears 1/1/ through 1/19! #he second and more widespread case was the smallpo2 epidemic

of 1/<< and 1/<4, which swept across the entire 8ortheast! 8ative population in 8ew .ngland plummeted %& over ;= as a result of these epidemics, and some 8ative groups lost up to 9+= of their

mem%ers!

“#he good hand of God favored our %eginnings, %& sweeping awa& great multitudes of the natives!!!that

he might mae room for us!" > )radford

?rom the 1/th centur& through the earl& *th centur&, no fewer than 9< confirmed epidemics and pandemics all of which can %e attri%uted to .uropean contagions decimated the American 3ndian

 population! 8ative American populations in the American @outhwest plummeted %& 9 percent or

more! #he .uropeans %elieved that the 8atives died %ecause God was on their side! #he 3ndians, on theother hand, %elieved that God had a%andoned them and looed to the evidence that their healers were

helpless in the face of catastrophic disease out%reas!

“.nglish, ?rench, 3talian, @panish, and :ortuguese mariners regularl& plied the coastline, trading whatthe& could, occasionall& idnapping the inha%itants for slaves!"

7hen the& got there, the .uropeans used the 8atives as slaves on their sugar fields and to

maintainBgrow their crops! 7hen the natives %egan to die out, the& imported %lac slaves from Africa!)& the %eginning of the eighteenth centur&, %lac slaves could %e found in ever& 8ew 7orld area

colonied %& .uropeans, from 8ova @cotia to )uenos Aires! 7hile the concentrations of slave la%or

were greatest in .ngland's southern colonies, the -ari%%ean, and Catin America, where slaves wereemplo&ed in mines or on sugar, rice, to%acco, and cotton plantations, slaves were also put to wor in

northern seaports and on commercial farms! 3n 1/9, one out of ever& nine families in )oston owned a

slave!3t was not inevita%le that .uropeans in the 8ew 7orld would rel& on African slaves to raise

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crops, clear forests, and mine precious metals! 3n ever& 8ew 7orld colon&, .uropeans e2perimented

with 3ndian slaver&, convict la%or, and white indentured servants!7h& did ever& .uropean power

eventuall& turn to African la%orD .uropeans imported African slaves partl& for demographic reasons!

As a result of epidemic diseases, which reduced the native population %& + to 9 percent, the la%orsuppl& was insufficient to meet demand! Africans were e2perienced in intensive agriculture and raising

livestoc and new how to raise crops lie rice that .uropeans were unfamiliar with!3nitiall&, .nglish

colonists relied on indentured white servants rather than on %lac slaves! (ver half of all whiteimmigrants to the .nglish colonies during the seventeenth centur& consisted of convicts or indentured

servants!As late as 1/4, there were pro%a%l& onl& 1+ %lacs in Eirginia 0the colon& with the highest

 %lac population, and in 1/+, <! )ut %& 1/F, the num%er had risen to <, and %& 1;4, to1,! ?aced %& a shortage of white indentured servants and fearful of servant revolt, .nglish settlers

increasingl& resorted to enslaved Africans! )etween 1; and 1;;+, more than <+, Africans slaves

entered the American colonies!

“#he 3ndians at :l&mouth would surel& have %een an e$ual o%stacle to m& ancestor and his ramshacle

e2pedition had disease not intervened!"

3mmunit& to .uropean disease would have meant that the 8ative Americans would have had large$uantities of .uropean livestoc for a ver& long time, long enough to ac$uire a similar level of

resistance that the .uropeans had! Man& of the diseases that ravaged the 8ative Americans had

originated from livestoc whose pathogens made the jump to humans thans to the fact that in the oldword, humans had lived in close pro2imit& with their livestoc! 7hile the disease trade was

somewhat un%alanced in the Americas, Africa and @outhern Asia gave us malaria and &ellow fever

while we gave them s&philis! owever, let us sa& that the& did manage to ac$uire large $uantities ofcattle through trade 0presuma%l& along with the cattle the& would also have o%tained grain from the old

world > wheat and %arle& are nutritionall& superior and easier to cultivate than maie, and had the

livestoc for sufficient time to develop immunit&! 8atives who happened to %e living in a climate that

was appropriate for growing such crops would have %enefitted the most, while groups living in lessclement climates would most pro%a%l& have retained a certain degree of hunter>gathering! 3n all

 pro%a%ilit&, due to the fact that the 8ative Americans were divided into several groups, the& might have

 %uilt a societ& %ased on farming similar to that in .urope, with several states competing against eachother! #he competition would pro%a%l& have led to further development of %asic technologies of their

own, and possi%l& start trade with the old world! #he 3ncas in particular were an e2cellent candidate for 

this! #he most important part of not %eing overrun %& con$uering invaders is that of eeping up withtheir technolog&! -ommunication and trade would have %een more of a pro%lem to the 8ative

Americans %ecause there were two large %odies of water %etween them and the old world! #herefore, if,

and this is a %ig if, the natives had also developed trade enough to have good communication with theold world, the& would have caught up with old world technolog& and old world ideas of how to wage

war more than the& would otherwise have! ad this happened, the simple stratagems that -orte and

:iarro used on the Atecs and 3ncas would never have wored!