Pontiac two speeches 1762 and 1763

Contents 1. Preface 2. 1: A New World

1. 1. Adam Smith, The Results of Colonization (1776) 2. 2. Giovanni da Verrazano, Encountering Native Americans (1524) 3. 3. Bartolomé de las Casas on Spanish Treatment of the Indians, from History of the

Indies (1528) 4. 4. The Pueblo Revolt (1680) 5. 5. Father Jean de Bré beuf on the Customs and Beliefs of the Hurons (1635) 6. 6. Jewish Petition to the Dutch West India Company (1655)

3. 2: Beginnings of English America, 1607–1660 1. 7. Exchange between John Smith and Powhatan (1608) 2. 8. Sending Women to Virginia (1622) 3. 9. Henry Care, English Liberties (1680) 4. 10. John Winthrop, Speech to the Massachusetts General Court (1645) 5. 11. The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637) 6. 12. Roger Williams, Letter to the Town of Providence (1655) 7. 13. The Levellers, The Agreement of the People Presented to the Council of the Army

(1647) 4. 3: Creating Anglo-America, 1660–1750

1. 14. William Penn, Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges and Liberties (1701) 2. 15. Nathaniel Bacon on Bacon’s Rebellion (1676) 3. 16. Letter by an Immigrant to Pennsylvania (1769) 4. 17. An Act Concerning Negroes and Other Slaves (1664) 5. 18. Benjamin Franklin, “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind” (1751) 6. 19. Complaint of an Indentured Servant (1756) 7. 20. Women in the Household Economy (1709)

5. 4: Slavery, Freedom, and the Struggle for Empire, to 1763 1. 21. An Act for the Encouragement of the Importation of White Servants (1698) 2. 22. Olaudah Equiano on Slavery (1789) 3. 23. Advertisements for Runaway Slaves and Servants (1738) 4. 24. The Independent Reflector on Limited Monarchy and Liberty (1752) 5. 25. The Trial of John Peter Zenger (1735) 6. 26. The Great Awakening Comes to Connecticut (1740) 7. 27. Pontiac, Two Speeches (1762 and 1763)

6. 5: The American Revolution, 1763–1783 1. 28. Virginia Resolutions on the Stamp Act (1765) 2. 29. New York Workingmen Demand a Voice in the Revolutionary Struggle (1770) 3. 30. Association of the New York Sons of Liberty (1773) 4. 31. Farmington, Connecticut, Resolutions on the Intolerable Acts (1774) 5. 32. Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776) 6. 33. Samuel Seabury’s Argument against Independence (1775)

7. 6: The Revolution Within 1. 34. Abigail and John Adams on Women and the American Revolution (1776) 2. 35. Jefferson’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779) 3. 36. John Adams on the American Revolution (1818)

4. 37. Noah Webster on Equality (1787) 5. 38. Liberating Indentured Servants (1784) 6. 39. Letter of Phillis Wheatley (1774) 7. 40. Benjamin Rush, Thoughts upon Female Education (1787)

8. 7: Founding a Nation, 1783–1791 1. 41. Petition of Inhabitants West of the Ohio River (1785) 2. 42. David Ramsey, American Innovations in Government (1789) 3. 43. J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur, “What, Then, Is the American?” (1782) 4. 44. James Winthrop, The Anti-Federalist Argument (1787) 5. 45. Thomas Jefferson on Race and Slavery (1781)

9. 8: Securing the Republic, 1791–1815 1. 46. Benjamin F. Bache, A Defense of the French Revolution (1792–1793) 2. 47. Address of the Democratic-Republican Society of Pennsylvania (1794) 3. 48. Judith Sargent Murray, “On the Equality of the Sexes” (1790) 4. 49. Protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) 5. 50. George Tucker on Gabriel’s Rebellion (1801) 6. 51. Tecumseh, Speech to the Osage (1810) 7. 52. Felix Grundy, Battle Cry of the War Hawks (1811) 8. 53. Mercy Otis Warren on Religion and Virtue (1805)

10. 9: The Market Revolution, 1800–1840 1. 54. Sarah Bagley, Freedom and Necessity at Lowell (1845) 2. 55. Joseph Smith, The Wentworth Letter (1842) 3. 56. Margaret McCarthy to Her Family in Ireland (1850) 4. 57. Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar” (1837) 5. 58. Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854) 6. 59. Charles G. Finney, “Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts” (1836)

11. 10: Democracy in America, 1815–1840 1. 60. The Monroe Doctrine (1823) 2. 61. John Quincy Adams on the Role of the National Government (1825) 3. 62. Andrew Jackson, Veto of the Bank Bill (1832) 4. 63. Virginia Petition for the Right to Vote (1829) 5. 64. Appeal of the Cherokee Nation (1830) 6. 65. Appeal of Forty Thousand Citizens (1838)

12. 11: The Peculiar Institution 1. 66. Frederick Douglass on the Desire for Freedom (1845) 2. 67. The Proslavery Argument (1854) 3. 68. William Sewall, The Results of British Emancipation (1860) 4. 69. Rules of Highland Plantation (1838) 5. 70. Slavery and the Bible (1850) 6. 71. Letter by a Fugitive Slave (1840) 7. 72. Solomon Northup, The New Orleans Slave Market (1853)

13. 12: An Age of Reform, 1820–1840 1. 73. Robert Owen, “The First Discourse on a New System of Society” (1825) 2. 74. Philip Schaff on Freedom as Self-Restraint (1855) 3. 75. David Walker’s Appeal (1829) 4. 76. Frederick Douglass on the Fourth of July (1852) 5. 77. Catharine Beecher on the “Duty of American Females” (1837) 6. 78. Angelina Grimké on Women’s Rights (1837) 7. 79. Protest Statement of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell (1855)

14. 13: A House Divided, 1840–1861

1. 80. John L. O’Sullivan, Manifest Destiny (1845) 2. 81. A Protest against Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1852) 3. 82. Resistance to the Fugitive Slave Act (1850) 4. 83. American Party Platform (1856) 5. 84. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, The Dred Scott Decision (1857) 6. 85. Texas Declaration of Independence (1836) 7. 86. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates (1858) 8. 87. South Carolina Ordinance of Secession (1860)

15. 14: A New Birth of Freedom: The Civil War, 1861–1865 1. 88. Alexander H. Stephens, The Cornerstone of the Confederacy (1861) 2. 89. Marcus M. Spiegel, Letter of a Civil War Soldier (1864) 3. 90. Samuel S. Cox Condemns Emancipation (1862) 4. 91. A Defense of the Confederacy (1861) 5. 92. Frederick Douglass on Black Soldiers (1863) 6. 93. Letter by the Mother of a Black Soldier (1863) 7. 94. Abraham Lincoln, Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore (1864) 8. 95. Mary Livermore on Women and the War (1883)

16. 15: “What Is Freedom?”: Reconstruction, 1865–1877 1. 96. Petition of Black Residents of Nashville (1865) 2. 97. Petition of Committee on Behalf of the Freedmen to Andrew Johnson (1865) 3. 98. The Mississippi Black Code (1865) 4. 99. A Sharecropping Contract (1866) 5. 100. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Home Life” (ca. 1875) 6. 101. Frederick Douglass, “The Composite Nation” (1869) 7. 102. Robert B. Elliott on Civil Rights (1874)

Preface Voices of Freedom is a documentary history of American freedom from the earliest days of European exploration and settlement of the Western Hemisphere to the present. I have prepared it as a companion volume to Give Me Liberty!, my survey textbook of the history of the United States centered on the theme of freedom. This sixth edition of Voices of Freedom is organized in chapters that correspond to those in the sixth edition of the textbook. But it can also stand independently as a documentary introduction to the history of American freedom. The two volumes include more than twenty documents not available in the fifth edition.

No idea is more fundamental to Americans’ sense of themselves as individuals and as a nation than freedom, or liberty, with which it is almost always used interchangeably. The Declaration of Independence lists liberty among mankind’s inalienable rights; the Constitution announces as its purpose to secure liberty’s blessings. “Every man in the street, white, black, red or yellow,” wrote the educator and statesman Ralph Bunche in 1940, “knows that this is ‘the land of the free’ . . . ‘the cradle of liberty.’ ”

The very universality of the idea of freedom, however, can be misleading. Freedom is not a fixed, timeless category with a single unchanging definition. Rather, the history of the United States is, in part, a story of debates, disagreements, and struggles over freedom. Crises like the American Revolution, the Civil War, and the Cold War have permanently transformed the idea of freedom. So too have demands by various groups of Americans for greater freedom as they understood it.

In choosing the documents for Voices of Freedom, I have attempted to convey the multifaceted history of this compelling and contested idea. The documents reflect how Americans at different points in our history have defined freedom as an overarching idea, or have understood some of its many dimensions, including political, religious, economic, and personal freedom. For each chapter, I have tried to select documents that highlight the specific discussions of freedom that occurred during that time period, and some of the divergent interpretations of freedom at each point in our history. I hope that students will gain an appreciation of how the idea of freedom has expanded over time, and how it has been extended into more and more areas of Americans’ lives. But at the same time, the documents suggest how freedom for some Americans has, at various times in our history, rested on lack of freedom—for example, slavery, indentured servitude, the subordinate position of women— for others.

The documents that follow reflect the kinds of historical developments that have shaped and reshaped the idea of freedom, including war, economic change, territorial expansion, social protest movements, and international involvement. The selections try to convey a sense of the rich cast of characters who have contributed to the history of American freedom. They include presidential proclamations and letters by runaway slaves, famous court cases and obscure manifestos, ideas dominant in a particular era and those of radicals and dissenters. They range from advertisements in colonial newspapers seeking the return of runaway indentured servants and slaves to debates in the early twentieth century over the definition of economic freedom, the controversy over the proposed Equal Rights Amendment for women, and recent Supreme Court decisions dealing with the right of gay Americans to marry one another.

I have been particularly attentive to how battles at the boundaries of freedom—the efforts of racial minorities, women, and others to secure greater freedom—have deepened and transformed the

concept and extended it into new realms. In addition, in this sixth edition I have included a number of new documents that illustrate how the very definition of American identity—answers to the question “Who is an American?”—have affected the evolution of the idea of freedom. These include Benjamin Franklin’s argument in 1751 for restricting immigration to English men and women; J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur’s observations at the time of the War of Independence on the emergence of the American, a “new man,” from the diverse peoples of European descent in the new nation; Frederick Douglass’s remarkable “Composite Nation” speech soon after the Civil War; Randolph Bourne’s 1916 essay “Trans-National America”; and historian Oscar Handlin’s critique of the law adopted in 1924 that severely restricted immigration from southern and eastern Europe.

All of the documents in this collection are “primary sources”—that is, they were written or spoken by men and women enmeshed in the events of the past, rather than by later historians. They therefore offer students the opportunity to encounter ideas about freedom in the actual words of participants in the drama of American history. Some of the documents are reproduced in their entirety. Most are excerpts from longer interviews, articles, or books. In editing the documents, I have tried to remain faithful to the original purpose of the author, while highlighting the portion of a text that deals directly with one or another aspect of freedom. In most cases, I have reproduced the wording of the original texts exactly. But I have modernized the spelling and punctuation of some early documents to make them more understandable to the modern reader. Each document is preceded by a brief introduction that places it in historical context and is followed by two questions that highlight key elements of the argument and may help to focus students’ thinking about the issues raised by the author.

A number of these documents were suggested by students in a U.S. history class at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, taught by Professor David Hsiung. I am very grateful to these students, who responded enthusiastically to an assignment by Professor Hsiung that asked them to locate documents that might be included in Voices of Freedom and to justify their choices with historical arguments. Some of the documents are included in the online exhibition “Preserving American Freedom” created by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Taken together, the documents in these volumes suggest the ways in which American freedom has changed and expanded over time. But they also remind us that American history is not simply a narrative of continual progress toward greater and greater freedom. While freedom can be achieved, it may also be reduced or rescinded. It can never be taken for granted.

Eric Foner

CHAPTER 1

A New World 1. 1. Adam Smith, The Results of Colonization (1776) 2. 2. Giovanni da Verrazano, Encountering Native Americans (1524) 3. 3. Bartolomé de las Casas on Spanish Treatment of the Indians, from History of the Indies

(1528) 4. 4. The Pueblo Revolt (1680) 5. 5. Father Jean de Bré beuf on the Customs and Beliefs of the Hurons (1635) 6. 6. Jewish Petition to the Dutch West India Company (1655)

1. Adam Smith, The Results of Colonization (1776) Source: Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (London, 1776), vol. 2, pp. 190–91, 235–37.

“The discovery of America,” the Scottish writer Adam Smith announced in his celebrated work The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, was one of “the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind.” Smith is regarded as the founder of modern economics. It is not surprising that looking back nearly three centuries after the initial voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Smith focused primarily on the economic results of the conquest and colonization of North and South America. The influx of goods from the New World, he insisted, greatly increased the “enjoyments” of the people of Europe and the market for European goods. Nonetheless, Smith did not fail to note the price paid by the indigenous population of the New World, who suffered a dramatic decline in population due to epidemics, wars of conquest, and the exploitation of their labor. “Benefits” for some, Smith observed, went hand in hand with “dreadful misfortunes” for others—a fitting commentary on the long encounter between the Old and New Worlds.

OF THE ADVANTAGES which Europe has derived from the Discovery of America, and from that of a Passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope

What are [the advantages] which Europe has derived from the discovery and colonization of America?

The general advantages which Europe, considered as one great country, has derived from the discovery and colonization of America, consist, first, in the increase of its enjoyments; and, secondly, in the augmentation of its industry.

The surplus produce of America, imported into Europe, furnishes the inhabitants of this great continent with a variety of commodities which they could not otherwise have possessed; some for conveniency and use, some for pleasure, and some for ornament, and thereby contributes to increase their enjoyments.

The discovery and colonization of America, it will readily be allowed, have contributed to augment the industry, first, of all the countries which trade to it directly, such as Spain, Portugal, France, and England; and, secondly, of all those which, without trading to it directly, send, through the medium of other countries, goods to it of their own produce; such as Austrian Flanders, and some provinces of Germany, which, through the medium of the countries before mentioned, send to it a considerable quantity of linen and other goods. All such countries have evidently gained a more extensive market for their surplus produce, and must consequently have been encouraged to increase its quantity. . . .

• • •

The discovery of America, and that of a passage to the East Indies by the Cape of Good Hope, are

the two greatest and most important events recorded in the history of mankind. Their consequences have already been very great; but, in the short period of between two and three centuries which has elapsed since these discoveries were made, it is impossible that the whole extent of their consequences can have been seen. What benefits or what misfortunes to mankind may hereafter result from those great events, no human wisdom can foresee. By uniting, in some measure, the most distant parts of the world, by enabling them to relieve one another’s wants, to increase one another’s enjoyments, and to encourage one another’s industry, their general tendency would seem to be beneficial. To the natives however, both of the East and West Indies, all the commercial benefits which can have resulted from those events have been sunk and lost in the dreadful misfortunes which they have occasioned. . . .

• • •

In the meantime one of the principal effects of those discoveries has been to raise the mercantile system to a degree of splendour and glory which it could never otherwise have attained to. It is the object of that system to enrich a great nation rather by trade and manufactures than by the improvement and cultivation of land, rather by the industry of the towns than by that of the country. But, in consequence of those discoveries, the commercial towns of Europe, instead of being the manufacturers and carriers for but a very small part of the world (that part of Europe which is washed by the Atlantic Ocean, and the countries which lie round the Baltic and Mediterranean seas), have now become the manufacturers for the numerous and thriving cultivators of America, and the carriers and in some respects the manufacturers too, for almost all the different nations of Asia, Africa, and America. Two new worlds have been opened to their industry, each of them much greater and more extensive than the old one, and the market of one of them growing still greater and greater every day.

Questions 1. According to Adam Smith, how did the “discovery and colonization” of America affect the

economic development of Europe? 2. Why does Smith believe that the “benefits” of colonization outweigh the “misfortunes”?

2. Giovanni da Verrazano, Encountering Native Americans (1524) Source: Giovanni da Verrazano, from The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazano, 1524–1528, Lawrence C. Wroth, ed., Susan Tarrow, trans. (1970), pp. 133–34, 137–38, 140–43. Copyright © 1970 by Yale University Press. Reprinted by permission of Yale University Press.

One of the first European explorers to encounter the Indians of eastern North America, Giovanni da Verrazano was an Italian-born navigator who sailed in 1524 under the auspices of King Philip I of France. His voyage took him from modern-day Cape Fear, North Carolina, north to the coast of Maine. In the following excerpt from his diary, which he included in a letter to the king, Verrazano tries to describe the appearance, economic life, customs, and beliefs of some of the region’s various Native American groups. Some, he reports, were friendly and generous; others warlike and hostile. He is particularly interested in their spiritual beliefs, concluding that they have “no religion.” Verrazano found the east coast thickly populated. By the time English settlement began in the early seventeenth century, many of the groups he encountered had been all but destroyed by epidemic diseases.

SINCE THE STORM that we encountered in the northern regions, Most Serene King, I have not written to tell your majesty of what happened to the four ships which you sent over the Ocean to explore new lands, as I thought you had already been informed of everything—how we were forced by the fury of the winds to return in distress to Brittany with only the Normandy and the Dauphine, and that after undergoing repairs there, began our voyage with these two ships, equipped for war, following the coasts of Spain, Your Most Serene Majesty will have heard; and then according to our new plan, we continued the original voyage with only the Dauphine; now on our return from this voyage I will tell Your Majesty of what we found. . . .

Seeing that the land continued to the south, we decided to turn and skirt it toward the north, where we found the land we had sighted earlier. So we anchored off the coast and sent the small boat in to land. We had seen many people coming to the seashore, but they fled when they saw us approaching; several times they stopped and turned around to look at us in great wonderment. We reassured them with various signs, and some of them came up, showing great delight at seeing us and marveling at our clothes, appearance, and our whiteness; they showed us by various signs where we could most easily secure the boat, and offered us some of their food. We were on land, and I shall now tell Your Majesty briefly what we were able to learn of their life and customs.

They go completely naked except that around their loins they wear skins of small animals like martens, with a narrow belt of grass around the body, to which they tie various rails of other animals which hang down to the knees; the rest of the body is bare, and so is the head. Some of them wear garlands of birds’ feathers. They are dark in color, not unlike the Ethiopians, with thick black hair, not very long, tied back behind the head like a small tail. As for the physique of these men, they are well proportioned, of medium height, a little taller than we are. They have broad chests, strong arms, and the legs and other parts of the body are well composed. There is nothing else, except that they tend to be rather broad in the face; but not all, for we saw many with angular faces. They have big

black eyes, and an attentive and open look. They are not very strong, but they have a sharp cunning, and are agile and swift runners. From what we could tell from observation, in the last two respects they resemble the Orientals. . . .

We reached another land 15 leagues from the island, where we found an excellent harbor; before entering it, we saw about 20 boats full of people who came around the ship uttering various cries of wonderment. They did not come nearer than fifty paces, but stopped to look at the structure of our ship, our persons, and our clothes; then all together they raised a loud cry which meant that they were joyful. We reassured them somewhat by imitating their gestures, and they came near enough for us to throw them a few little bells and mirrors and many trinkets, which they took and looked at, laughing, and then they confidently came on board ship. . . . These people are the most beautiful and have the most civil customs that we have found on this voyage. They are taller than we are; they are a bronze color, some tending more toward whiteness, others to a tawny color; the face is clear-cut; the hair is long and black, and they take great pains to decorate it; the eyes are black and alert, and their manner is sweet and gentle, very like the manner of the ancients. . . .

Their women are just as shapely and beautiful; very gracious, of attractive manner and pleasant appearance; their customs and behavior follow womanly custom as far as befits human nature; they go nude except for stag skin embroidered like the men’s, and some wear rich lynx skins on their arms; their bare heads are decorated with various ornaments made of braids of their own hair which hang down over their breasts on either side. . . . Both men and women have various trinkets hanging from their ears as the Orientals do; and we saw that many had sheets of worked copper which they prize more than gold. They do not value gold because of its color; they think it the most worthless of all, and rate blue and red above all other colors. The things we gave them that they prized the most were little bells, blue crystals, and other trinkets to put in the ear or around the neck. They did not appreciate cloth of silk and gold, nor even of any other kind, nor did they care to have them; the same was true for metals like steel and iron, for many times when we showed them some of our arms, they did not admire them, nor ask for them, but merely examined the workmanship. They did the same with mirrors; they would look at them quickly, and then refuse them, laughing.

They are very generous and give away all they have. We made great friends with them, and one day before we entered the harbor with the ship, when we were lying at anchor one league out to sea because of unfavorable weather, they came out to the ship with a great number of their boats; they had painted and decorated their faces with various colors, showing us that it was a sign of happiness. They brought us some of their food, and showed us by signs where we should anchor in the port for the ship’s safety, and then accompanied us all the way until we dropped anchor. . . .

At a distance of fifty leagues, keeping more to the north, we found high country full of very dense forests, composed of pines, cypresses, and similar trees which grow in cold regions.

The people were quite different from the others, for while the previous ones had been courteous in manner, these were full of crudity and vices, and were so barbarous that we could never make any communication with them, however many signs we made to them. They were clothed in skins of bear, lynx, sea-wolf and other animals. As far as we could judge from several visits to their houses, we think they live on game, fish, and several fruits which are a species of root which the earth produces itself. . . . We saw no sign of cultivation, nor would the land be suitable for producing any fruit or grain on account of its sterility. If we wanted to trade with them for some of their things, they would come to the seashore on some rocks where the breakers were most violent, while we remained in the little boat, and they sent us what they wanted to give on a rope, continually shouting at us not to approach the land; they gave us the barter quickly, and would take in exchange only knives, hooks

for fishing and sharp metal. We found no courtesy in them, and when we had nothing more to exchange and left them, the men made all the signs of scorn and shame that any brute creature would make. Against their wishes, we penetrated two or three leagues inland with 25 armed men, and when we disembarked on the shore, they shot at us with their bows and uttered loud cries before fleeing into the woods. . . .

Due to a lack of [a common] language, we were unable to find out by signs or gestures how much religious faith these people we found possess. We think they have neither religion nor laws, that they do not know of a First Cause or Author, that they do not worship the sky, the stars, the sun, the moon, or other planets, nor do they even practice any kind of idolatry; we do not know whether they offer any sacrifices or other prayers, nor are there any temples or churches of prayer among their peoples. We consider that they have no religion and that they live in absolute freedom, and that everything they do proceeds from Ignorance; for they are very easily persuaded, and they imitated everything that they saw us Christians do with regard to divine worship, with the same fervor and enthusiasm that we had.

Questions 1. How much do Verrazano’s observations seem to be affected by his own beliefs and

experiences? 2. Why does he write that Indians live in “absolute freedom,” and why does he consider this a

criticism rather than a compliment?

3. Bartolomé de las Casas on Spanish Treatment of the Indians, from History of the Indies (1528) Source: Bartolomé de las Casas, “History of the Indies (1528),” excerpt from History of the Indies, trans. and ed. Andrée M. Collard (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), pp. 82, 112–15. Copyright © 1971 by Andrée Collard, renewed 1999 by Joyce J. Contrucci. Reprinted by permission of Joyce Contrucci.

Known as the “Apostle of the Indians,” Bartolomé de las Casas, a Catholic priest, was the most eloquent critic of Spanish mistreatment of the New World’s native population. Las Casas took part in the exploitation of Indian labor on Hispaniola and Cuba. But in 1514, he freed his Indian slaves and began to preach against the injustices of Spanish rule. In his History of the Indies, Las Casas denounced Spain for causing the deaths of millions of innocent people. The excerpt that follows details events on Hispaniola, the Caribbean island first conquered and settled by Spain. Las Casas called for the Indians to enjoy the rights of other subjects of Spain.

Largely because of Las Casas’s efforts, in 1542 Spain promulgated the New Laws, ordering that Indians no longer be enslaved. But Spain’s European rivals seized upon Las Casas’s criticisms to justify their own ambitions. His writings became the basis for the Black Legend, the image of Spain as a uniquely cruel empire. Other nations would claim that their imperial ventures were inspired by the desire to rescue Indians from Spanish rule.

IN THAT YEAR of 1500, . . . the King determined to send a new governor to Hispaniola, which at the time was the only seat of government in the Indies. The new governor was fray Nicolás de Ovando, Knight of Alcántara, and at that time comendador of Lares.