Background to Caribbean History PDF

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Introduction to Caribbean History examining the settlement patterns and the culture of the indigenous peoples...

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BACKGROUND TO CARIBBEAN HISTORY THE PRE-COLUMBIAN CIVILIZATIONS TAINOS The Tainos were one of the two main peoples living in the Caribbean. At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards in the late 15th century, they occupied the islands of the Greater Antilles namely Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. The Tainos like the Kalinagos were of Mongoloid race, related to the other Amerindian groups of the New World e.g. the Eskimo of Greenland and Alaska; the Red Indians of the American Plains; the Mayas of Guatemala and Honduras; the Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas of Peru. Historians argue that the Amerindians came out of Asia into the Americas by way of the polar ice bridge of the Bering Straits. It is necessary to look at the political, economic, social and cultural organization of these people and make an estimate of their culture. The Tainos were not a highly developed people compared with the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas. They knew nothing of the art of writing and therefore their culture must be considered pre-historic. Similarly they were a stone-aged people; their tools, weapons and pottery were made mostly of stone because they knew nothing of the art of refining metal. Economically, the Tainos practiced a subsistence way of living as agriculturalists, craftsmen and hunters; producing only enough for their immediate use. They did not have any surplus production for storing and trading. The Tainos cultivated a number of crops {corn (maize), cassava, yams, pumpkins and sweet potatoes}. Cotton was used for weaving cloth which they girded around their loins. They also made hammocks and did craftwork in straw and bamboo. Vessels and pottery were also made and these were

2 usually adorned with grotesque heads and other images. Agriculture was the main economic activity since there were very few large animals like deer and buffalo in the islands. Hunting was therefore confined to the agouti and the iguana. Fishing at which the Tainos were very adept was the other most important form of economic activity.

Political Organization The political organization of the Taino society was quite simple. Their chief or cacique was a hereditary ruler. Some caciques ruled large provinces, others only small areas. The cacique was more of a ceremonial than a political ruler. He supervised the distribution of land; the delegation of labour; and the planting and re-planting of crops. He appeared to have made the laws because in Taino society law and order, crime and punishment was a matter for the individual. The canoe of the cacique was larger that the others and he had a special ceremonial stool carved out of wood or stone in the shape of an animal. The cacique had his zemis or gods and these were felt to be more powerful than the other zemis. Among the famous caciques mentioned in the records of the Spanish conquistadores were Guarionex and Hatuey. It was the latter who courageously resisted Velazquez in his attempt to subdue the Tainos.

Social and Cultural Organization Religion played an important part in Taino life. They believed in a sky-god and an earth goddess and they made zemis for idols representing the elements: rain, wind and fire. They also had gods representing fertility and their ancestors. They conceived of a

3 heaven which they called Coyaba as a place of peace and tranquillity. The smoking of tobacco during religious rituals played an important part in their ceremonies. Tobacco was used to induce a trance-like state of euphoria. The Tainos lived a very leisurely kind of life, allowing much time for recreation. Many festivals marked the Taino years; some religious and some secular. For example the naming of a baby was a time for great rejoicing. The Tainos felt that a child without a name would meet great misfortune. The wedding of a cacique and the inauguration of a new cacique were times of festivity as was harvest time and the return of a victorious war party. During these festivals, the emphasis was on dancing and singing to the music of the drums, reed-pipes and wooden gongs. The Tainos played a ball game called batos, which was played on a marked field with two teams trying to hit the ball with any part of the body into the opponents’ goal line. In modern terms, it would be a mixture of volleyball and football.

Summary The Tainos were a primitive people having none of the capacities that we associate with more developed cultures of that time. They could not read or write. They did not know how to work in metal they had no conception of the wheel or the lever. They had none of the elaborate building structures of the Aztecs, Incas and Mayas, living instead in thatched roof wooden houses. Similarly, they did not develop advanced irrigation techniques like the Aztecs and the Incas. The Tainos appear to have been kinder and more humane that other Amerindian peoples. Columbus noted that they were very honest, sympathetic and generous in their

4 dealings with the Spaniards. The contribution of the Tainos to the history of the world lies mainly in the staple food they produced {maize, cassava, peppers}. A number of English words are of Taino origin including hammock, hurricane, barbecue and canoe.

KALINAGOS The Caribs inhabited north-western Trinidad and the Kalinagos inhabited the Lesser Antilles and the Eastern part of Puerto Rico. The word “Carib” means cannibalism and there are rumours of cannibalism. The practice of cannibalism may have been due to the belief that the courage and strength of the victim would pass into the body of the eater. For example it is believed that in 1564, the Kalinagos of Dominica ate the crew of a Spanish ship and in 1596 those of St. Vincent ate the crew of the French ship. It is because of these rumours that the Kalinagos are not called Caribs but by their rightful name. The Kalinagos were taller and stronger than the Tainos, but they were still of only medium height. Their greater strength may have been due to the fact that they placed greater emphasis on physical prowess and training.

Political organization The political structure of the Kalinago society reflected its warlike nature and purpose. The Kalinago chief or ouboutu was not hereditary, but was chosen on the basis of strength and courage. The ouboutu did not make laws because private revenge was the common practice. The ouboutu planned raids, chose the captains and distributed the prizes. He was greatly feared among the men for his power.

5 Kalinago men often lived separately because they were always undergoing training for war. At the age of 4, a Kalinago boy was taken from his mother to live in the carbet or men’s house where he would begin to undergo warrior training. The Kalinago boy had to prove his manhood by undergoing tests of bravery and endurance. Courage was considered the greatest virtue and the initiation ceremony of the young male was a test of his ability to endure pain. Deep wounds were sometimes made in the body and salt rubbed in the wounds. The boy had to be adept in the use of the bow and arrow both on land and in the water. The Spaniards realized that many Kalinagos could speak the language of the Tainos, which was because the Kalinagos captured the Taino women and kept them as wives and servants. Raised by a Taino mother for a while, the boy would learn to speak the Taino language but he was expected to drop the language when he came of age and adopt the culture of the men.

Religious and Social Organization The Kalinagos believed in evil spirits known as maboya. Troubles and difficulties in life were attributed to angry maboya who could be appeased by more powerful maboya conjured up by the priests. The priests called boyez were very important in Kalinago society and underwent special training instead of becoming warriors. As with the Tainos, tobacco smoking played a large part in Kalinago religious rituals. The Spaniards noticed that the Kalinagos were clean shaven and some thought that they did not grow beards but the Kalinagos plucked their beards because they considered them a deformity. Both men and women wore bracelets and necklaces made

6 of shell, agouti teeth, seeds and coral. Kalinago houses were quite large and rectangular in shape. In addition to hammocks, Kalinagos slept on a kind of bed called an amais which consisted of sheets of cotton folded at both ends. Furniture included stools made from red and yellow wood and tables made from rushes (grasses). Drawing up on the beach near the Kalinago village were the all important canoes most of which were about 20 feet long. Like the Tainos, the Kalinagos made these from the trunks of trees. The trunks were charred, then hollowed with stone axes and left to season in the sun. Some Kalinago canoes or piragas were larger than the ordinary ones. These were not dugouts but were built with planks which were about 40 feet long and would carry as many as 50 men.

Economic Organization The Kalinagos grew almost the same crops as the Tainos, but they did not appear to be as competent in farming as the Tainos were, growing less maize and cassava. However, they were better fishermen than the Tainos and their canoes were larger, better built and could undertake longer voyages. The Kalinagos appear to have been quite superstitious. They would not eat the meat of a turtle because they felt it would make them slow-witted. Similarly, they would not eat pork because they believed it would make their eyes small and beady, and they would not eat crab before a voyage because it could bring on storms. Their meat was heavily seasoned with pepper but they would not use salt. They made a kind of cassava – beer called ouicou, which had a strong alcoholic content.

7 THE MAYAS For many centuries, the jungles of Guatemala held a mystery. In 1773, explorers stumbled on a great building. It was part of the remnants of the great Mayan civilization. By 900 A.D., the Mayas constituted a civilization. They were farmers, makers of clay pottery and had constructed great stone buildings on which they painted fine murals. They developed a calendar as accurate as the Egyptians, and like the Egyptians, they built great stone pyramids. But whereas the Egyptian pyramids were pointed, the Mayan pyramids were flat-topped. Around the year 900 A.D., the Mayas migrated to the flat lands of the Yucatan peninsula where they built the famous cities of Uxmal, Mayacan and Chichen-Itza. Many of the buildings and structures from the era are still standing.

Mayan Religion Religion played a great part in the life of the Mayas and priests played an important part in nearly all social activities. Their buildings were almost all devoted to religious purposes and for this reason historians and archaeologists have called the Mayan cities, Temple cities. Like most of the Amerindians, the Mayas worshipped many gods {polytheism}. They believed that life was a struggle between good and evil, and that there were good and evil gods. They believed in immortality and so the dead were buried with maize, drink and tools so they could enjoy the afterlife. Among the Mayan gods were Hunab Ku, the chief god; Kinich Ahau, the sun god; Chac, the rain god and Ah Kinchil, god of the earth. The Supreme God Hunab Ku was thought to be invisible and so he was never pictured.

8 Mayan Politics and Society The Mayas lived in independent city states. The society was divided into rigid classes, each with its own rights and duties. The ruler of each city state was an absolute hereditary ruler. Below the ruler came the nobles and below the nobles were the peasants who were farmers, artisans and merchants. The lowest class in this social hierarchy was the slaves. The Mayas were great traders both by land and sea. They used cocoa seeds and copper bells as means of exchange. They also traded in cotton, salt, maize, honey, shells and other ornaments. The Mayas built great road-ways to encourage trade between the various cities. Some of these roads were as much as 60 miles long. They also built crude reservoirs providing them with water in their relatively dry peninsula. The Mayas wore a simple cotton garment which was a loin cloth wound several times around the waist and between the legs. Over this they wore a mantle with sleeves and they often wore sandals. The women wore a simple dress with a square neck beneath which they wore a petticoat. Women however usually went barefooted. Only the rulers and outstanding warriors were allowed to use the coloured feathers of the quetzal bird in their hair. The Mayas were a short, robust, strong people. Cross eyes were considered a mark of distinction and beauty. Cooking was done outside of the house and the meal consisted of a flat cornbread or tortilla made of cornmeal, ground on a metate or grinding stone and baked on clay sheets. At Chichen-Itza, the Mayas built a large ball court 345 feet long by 225 feet wide on which they played a game called pok-a-tok, a kind of basketball in which the player struck a solid rubber ball through hoops set 35 feet above the ground. Sometimes the games had ritual significance for the losers could be sacrificed.

9 The Mayas and Science The Mayas built observatories from which their priests observed the moon, stars and planets. They also had a calendar as accurate as the one we use today. It too had 365 days a year, but it consisted of 18 months, each month having about 20 days. They had two other calendars: one by which they reckoned the special feasts of the gods, while the other measured time from the beginning of Mayan history, which they placed around 3101 B.C. However, the Mayas did not measure time in centuries because they believed that time was a cycle and that events repeated themselves throughout time. The Mayas developed the art of writing around 300 A.D., using a hieroglyphic script with about 850 highly stylized characters. They had books made of barks, folded like an accordion/concertina. The Spaniards destroyed much of the Mayan literature because they considered it pagan: the work of the devil. However three legible writings have survived, though not much of them have been deciphered. The Mayas also had a numerical system written in two ways: either in dots or dashes or with a shell representing zero. With this system they could add, subtract, multiply and divide in columns, working from top to bottom.

10 THE SPANIARDS AND THE AMERINDIANS It is almost always true in history, that whenever people from a more developed culture come into contact with people from a more primitive or less developed society, the latter invariably suffer at the hands of the former. From the beginning of Spanish settlement the Spanish Church was active in the New World. Twelve missionaries went with Columbus in the second voyage in 1493 with the purpose of converting the Amerindians. Royal instruction indicated that the Amerindians were to be treated lovingly. Unfortunately Juan de Fonseca who was put in charge of colonial affairs had no sympathy for the Tainos and he was reluctant to enforce the laws which existed for the protection of the indigenous people. Columbus wanted to treat the Tainos fairly and he opposed Juan de Fonseca. Columbus had a somewhat different attitude towards the Kalinagos and he suggested their enslavement to Queen Isabella in 1494, but she disagreed with the idea. King Ferdinand was less sympathetic to the Amerindians and when Queen Isabella died in 1504, the indigenous people received less protection from the Crown. Forced labour was essential for the development of the Spanish colonies and the Spanish Crown must have realized that forced labour could not be compatible with the good treatment of the Amerindians. In 1498, Columbus began the practice of encomienda and under Nicolas de Ovando the system of encomienda was legalized by Royal decree. The Spanish government tried to soften the impact of encomienda by stressing that the Spaniards had a moral obligation to the Amerindians; that the encomienda was a two-way relationship in which the Amerindians were to be housed, paid wages, cared for and converted to

11 Catholicism in exchange for their labour. In 1509, Ferdinand decreed that the encomienda should be adopted throughout the Spanish Empire and it lasted until the late 18th century.

The Thirty-Two Laws of Burgos (1512) The laws of Burgos were largely the work of the Dominican friar Montesinos. He had arrived in Hispaniola in 1510 and began preaching in the capital Santo Domingo, attacking the encomienda system and the colonists’ ill-treatment of the Amerindians. It was Montesinos’ petition to the Spanish Crown that secures the enactment of the laws of Burgos. Basically, the laws stated:

The Amerindians were freemen not slaves;

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They were to be converted to Christianity;

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They were to be made to work.

The intention of the laws of Burgos was to protect the Amerindians, while clearly indicating that forced labour was essential for the development of the Spanish colonies. King Ferdinand died in 1516 and was succeeded by Emperor Charles V, who was Carlos I of Spain. King Charles listened to the humane pleadings of Las Casas but also to those of his colonial advisors who saw the need to exploit the colonies’ resources through Amerindian labour. Las Casas was another Dominican friar who had come out to Hispaniola in 1502. He himself had become an encomendero, but had realised the system was morally wrong. He renounced his share of the encomienda and in 1515 went to Spain where he put his case for the abolition of the system to Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros, who was acting as regent after Ferdinand’s death.

12 Las Casas was appointed Protector of the Indians and he secured the enactment of the New Laws of 1542. The New Laws stated among other things that:

Amerindians could not be enslaved for any reason;

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The courts must protect the Amerindians from ill-treatment;

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All enslaved Amerindians must be set free;

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Amerindians could not be made to carry heavy loads in the mines;

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Amerindians should not be made to dive for pearls if they did not want to;

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Encomenderos guilty of abusing the encomienda would lose it.

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Amerindians should not be made to pay excessive tribute.

On paper the New Laws appeared to be a great improvement in the treatment of the Amerindians; but in practice they made little difference. They were met with such strong opposition from the colonists, that they were virtually abandoned in the succeeding years. Besides it was one thing to enact the laws in Spain, but it was another matter enforcing those laws thousands of miles away in the Indies.

Genocide Within 50 years there was hardly a Taino left in the West Indies. The Amerindian population of Hispaniola declined from 300,000 in 1492 to 500 in 1548; in Jamaica, from 60,000 in 1492 to none in 1665; and there was a corresponding decrease in Cuba and Puerto Rico. Within 150 year there was not a single Taino left, a startling example of total genocide.

13 How the Tainos were killed Alonzo de Ojeda began massacring the Tainos in Hispaniola using blood hounds of which the Tainos were very afraid. The Spaniards said that one dog was worth 10 soldiers in a fight with the Tainos. In 1511, Diego Velazquez began the conquest of Cuba, massacring the Tainos, who resisted under the leadership of their cacique Hatuey. Hatuey was burned alive by the Spaniards and the massacre in Cuba continued until 1531. Many Tainos committed suicide rather than submit to forced labour. They hanged themselves or poisoned themselves with cassava juice. They also committed infanticide rather than see their children enslaved. Many Tainos died under the stressful burden of forced labour, because this was very different from the casual lifestyle to which they were accustomed. Some Tainos were killed for sport. Some Spaniards would test the sharpness of their swords by trying to cut off a Taino’s head in a single stroke...