Let’s talk about slavery with the Taino people

There was a video that mentioned briefly that the Tainos were “saved” by Christopher Columbus from the Caribs (Kalinago) who were taking the Tainos as slaves and the thing about all of this is that Christopher was the one doing the actual slavery. (Shocker, I know)

Now before I begin, there’s a lot of history with just Chirspooper alone that I honestly can’t cover it all in a single Tumblr post and while I love talking about my people, doing these kinds of long posts takes a lot out of me so if you have specific questions please let me know. I’m not an expert on the Taino way of life, I’m still learning myself, but I do know a few things and would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. So with that out of the way, let’s talk about Chrispoopy and slavery.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this

That’s how it starts and the first thing people say when a good deal goes bad. You see when Chrisdick came over, we welcomed him, unlike the Kalinago who hated him which resulted in misinformation about them because someone got their feelings hurt.

We had no idea who these people were, we had no reason to be hostile. They came on massive boats, were fully clothed, they were interesting so we did what was common in our society, gave them stuff like silver and gold. Why did we give them silver and gold? We had no need for it. We lived off the island, we hunted, swam, slept outside, and we had no desire for silver and gold. We didn’t have an economy and we didn’t have the tools to make the types of weapons or armour the Spaniards had so we just gave them the stuff.

Not only did we give them silver and gold, but we also gave them our women and virgins. It was to help with relations. Our woman would go with them to this new land, and return us with information, new families, and wonders of the outside...that never happened. Giving the Spaniards silver, gold, and woman, was all in the hopes they would give us something in return, but the only thing they gave was diseases that made everyone sick. They took, and took, and took, and then they left.

When we refused to give them anymore, that’s when things got violent. They pillaged our villages, killed the strongest and told the weak to go digging for more silver and gold. That was when slavery began, when we didn’t want to give anymore, they decided to take instead.

How could we stop them? They had guns and we had spears and arrows. They made us sick and we couldn’t fight back. They already won the war before it started.

Why do you think Puerto Rico is called Puerto Rico? It literally translates to “Port of Riches” because of how rich it made the Spaniards. Once they were done being rich and taking from our land, they took us instead so we could work for them. An estimated 7-8 million Taino people died in just a few decades. They left the weak alone which is one of the reasons why we’re alive today and why I have Spaniard blood in me.

Some Spaniards sexually assaulted one of my ancestors, left them in Puerto Rico and they gave birth.

In short, Chris the killer did not “save” the Tainos from the Kalinago. He killed both of us and wrote himself as the hero in reality he was always just a loser with a big gun.