Columbus enslaved the Taino people on Hispaniola for European settlers, leading to the death of 90% of the population from European diseases and harsh slavery. The Taino were skilled in agriculture and inventive, but did not have a written language or religious practices. They made beautiful pottery and were free to leave their partners without jealousy or anger.
During his second voyage to the New World, Christopher Columbus established a colony on the island of Hispaniola. He encountered the native Tainos who lived there, nearly 250,000 strong. Columbus found these indigenous Arawak Indians to be a generous, hardy and inventive people, skilled in agriculture. Columbus took their lives into his own hands, enslaving the Taino to work in the gold mines and then on plantations, all for the benefit of European settlers. The Taino population quickly died out; 90% succumbed to the new infectious diseases. The natives had no immunity to European diseases, including smallpox, and entire communities were wiped out. If these new strains of deadly disease hadn’t affected them, the harsh slavery of the Spanish almost certainly would have. From an initial estimated population of 250,000 in 1492, only 1517 Taino remained by 14,000.
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By the late 15th century, the creative Taino had developed pepper gas for warfare, built ocean-going canoes large enough for 15 paddlers, and played with a rubber ball.
The Tainos never developed a written language and did not appear religious. They made beautiful pottery, wove intricate belts from dyed cotton and carved wood, stone, shell and bone.
Marriage laws were non-existent. Men and women were free to leave their mates as they pleased, without jealousy or anger.
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