The Weekly Sam: How “Progressive” Educators Planned to Socialize America

Published August 17, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

In his March 1987 newsletter, Sam Blumenfeld spelled out the plans that the enemies of America had for our nation.  The riots in the streets prove Sam to be correct.  This is why we must take our children out of the government schools.  http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net/1987/BEL%2002-03%20198703.

Our Blumenfeld Archive is enjoying an increase in views and downloads. Please help share this precious and valuable resource:  http://blumenfeld.campconstitution.net

Behind the Riots:

Published August 5, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

Rev. Steve Craft gave a powerful presentation at Camp Constitution’s 12 annual family camp held from July 19-24 at the Singing Hills Christian Camp in Plainfield.  Rev. Craft gives an historical overview of the riots and who is behind them.  He discusses the book Color, Communism, and Common Sense written by Manning Johnson, a former black communist reprinted by Camp Constitution Press   https://campconstitution.net/product/color-communism-and-common-sense-by-manning-johnson/  and discusses the communist and racist roots of Black Lives Matter.

 

Camp Constitution’s 12 Annual Family Camp-Largest Turnout in Our History

Published July 26, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

While many camp facilities and groups canceled their annual events,  we, Camp Constitution and our host Singing Hills Christian Camp in Plainfield, NH were determined to hold our 12th annual family camp.  Expecting a small turnout, Singing Hills relieved us of our contractual obligations, but it wasn’t necessary since we far exceeded the numbers.  We had over 130 attendees including a number of new families.  While a few of our scheduled instructors, Lord Christopher Monckton, and John McManus, and John Hoderny, our head counselor, were unable to attend, we had an excellent group of instructors including Alex Newman, Jonathan Alexandre of Liberty Counsel and Dr. Felecia Nace, Catherine White, and the Patriot Pastor, Garrett Lear.   Mrs. Edith Craft led the Junior Camper program.

In addition to the classes, we had plenty of recreational events, and for the first time, we had marksmanship training.  Led by Dr. Gene Long,  over 30 campers and adults fired a weapon for the first time.  Mr. Steve Wanager not only brought his Colonial and Civil War cannons, but fired them as well.   We also had an optional field trip to nearby Quechee Gorge.   Evangeline Herrygurs of Sarasota, Florida and Stephen Mauder of Toledo, Ohio were our Super Campers.    Here is a link to a YouTube playlist of our classes and events:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7jnzBzBiNYDOAZbrVE4kD1jNlhxScPmH    We have already booked Singing Hills for next year Sunday July 18 to Friday July 23, 2021. For those who are looking to book an event for your church or group, we highly recommend Singing Hills:  https://www.singinghills.net/

Thanks to all who helped make this camp possible.

Debunking Howard Zinn Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America-An Interview of Mary Grabar

Published July 14, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

While Howard Zinn died in 2010, his legacy of hating America lives on.  His book  A Peoples History of the United States, laced with historic innacuracies and  deliberate lies, has been used as a textbook in American schools.  With such hatred of our nation being taught in government and some private schools, we shoudn’t be surprised to see Zinn’s disciples tearing down our statues and destoying our cities.  I recently had the honor to interview historian and author Mary Grabar, author of her important book Debunking Howard Zinn Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation Against America.  A link to that interview:

https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/shurtleffhal/episodes/2020-07-13T18_39_57-07_00

Mary Grabar’s bio from her website:

I was born in Slovenia (then part of communist Yugoslavia) and grew up in Rochester, New York. I moved to Georgia in 1985 and earned my Ph.D. in English from the University of Georgia in 2002.mary baby

My parents took me and fled a communist regime. In graduate school I became a dissident to the reigning political correctness and Marxism taking over the humanities. I came to conservatism after witnessing the deliberate destruction of our literary heritage and respect for the West and the United States by radical professors in my graduate seminars. While teaching as an adjunct instructor (low pay, no benefits, no security), I wrote about the corruption in education—and lost teaching jobs.

In 2011, I founded the Dissident Prof Education Project, Inc., dedicated to “resisting the re-education of America,” www.dissidentprof.com. Dissident Prof filed for 501(c) (3) status on February 8, 2013. Caught up in the persecution of dissident groups, notably those using the term “tea party” in their names, by President Obama, Dissident Prof met stonewalling and unreasonable demands for information from the IRS and did not receive nonprofit status until the fall of 2014. Dissident Prof participated in a successful class action lawsuit against the IRS that was settled in late 2018.

In 2013, the program under which I was teaching at Emory University ended, and in 2014, I moved to Clinton, New York, and became a resident fellow at The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, where I continued to write about education for publications and for the AHI website. One of those topics was the corrosive effect of communist historian Howard Zinn, whose A People’s History of the United States has broken records in sales and adoption for classroom use since its initial publication in 1980.

On August 20, 2019, my book, Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America was published by Regnery.To schedule me for a media interview or a speaking event, please contact me here.

To order her book, please visit her website:

https://marygrabar.com/index.php/about-me

 

Camp Constitution’s Six Month Report for 2020

Published July 11, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

Camp Constitution’s Six Month Report for 2020

YouTube Channel:  We are averaging 12,000 views a month, and have approximately 700 new subscribers. Our most popular video over the past few weeks is Rev. Steve Craft’s Color, Communism, and Common Sense class from last year’s family camp with over 1,000 views. If you haven’t already, please take a few minutes to visit our channel and subscribe.    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7ME18Q1xiqcrPEn5h5FbA?view_as=subscriber

 

The Sam Blumenfeld Archive:  We had over 900,000  views, 49,000  Alpha-Phonics downloaded, 9,000 Alpha-Phonics Instructions Workbook downloaded and 4,000 downloads of Sam’s other books.  This is a huge increase over the first three months.  https://campconstitution.net/sam-blumenfeld-archive/

Camp Constitution Radio on Podomatic:  Our listenership has almost doubled over last year with 4,504  visits and 1,729  shows downloaded.    https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/shurtleffhal

Facebook Page:  We have  2,800 total likes with three hundred new likes over the past six months.

Speaker’s Bureau:  Prior to the middle of March, we had eight speaking engagements which included an all-day seminar in New York hosted by the Gimenez family.  We hosted two videos showing of the movie Unplanned. During the lockdown, we  spoke at  four Open Up Massachusetts rallies.   Rev. Craft, Tom Moor, Rich Howell  spoke  at the annual Flag Day-Second Amendment Rally in Central Massachusetts

Information Tables and Outreach: Prior to the lockdown in March,  had information tables at several venues, and a first-time presence at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. During the lockdown, we had information tables at the annual Flag Day Second Amendment Rally in Massachusetts, and for the first time, we had an information table at the Heaven’s Saints Motorcycle Club Rally  in Helen, Georgia

Camp Constitution’s Website: We are seeing a steady monthly increase with over 18,000 views from January to June.  Our on-line shop is enjoying brisk sales over the past month.   https://www.campconstitution.net

Camp Constitution Press: We published Sam Blumenfeld’s School-Induced Dyslexia and How It Deforms a Child’s Brain, reprinted Negroes in a Soviet America and American Negro Problems.  These were Communist Party pamphlets that were reprinted by Patriot groups in the 1950s and 1960s to show how the Communists were promoting race hatred.  And, we will be reprinting And Not a Shot if Fired

Camp Constitution Book Sales:     We had brisk sales from our Amazon account during the lockdown  raising approximately $4,000 from our Amazon and Facebook page. We also saw an increase of sales from our on-line shop.     https://campconstitution.net/shop/              We continue to be blessed with book donations.

Camp Constitution Media:  We videotpaped three Open Massachusetts Rally events, and the Flag Day-Second Amendment Rally.   We were on hand to videotape an event in Northern Maine with Coach Dave Daubenmire, and David Author; a presentation by Stephen Coughlin, one of the nation’s top experts on Islam held in Virginia; a presentation on George Washington’s Crossing of the Delaware by historian, and author Robert Allison in Greater Boston sponsored by the Sons of the Revolution, and a wreath laying ceremony in Boston to honor the victims of the Boston Massacre sponsored by the Daughters of the American Revolution.  We also videotaped several presentations which we sponsored. We continue to do live facebook videos including one in front of a Confederate monument in Marion, Virgina with over 16,000 views.

Article V Convention: A resolution in New Hampshire to rescind their state’s application was overwhelmingly passed in committee and is expected to be passed by the full House. We were  interviewed on an internet show hosted by Evan Mulch to discuss the Conference of States, and we continue to educate people about the dangers of an Article V Convention especially in the wake of the civil turmoil we are experiencing.

Camp Constitution in the News: Our Christian flag lawsuit was back in the news  in January and again in June:   https://www.wnd.com/2020/06/bostons-fight-christian-flag-moves-appeals-court/  And, we were mentioned in several newspaper articles and  Boston area TV stations due to our participation at Open Up Massachusetts Rallies.

Radio and Cable TV:   During the lockdown, we were guests on numerous radio shows including the Ed Martin Movement Show with a national audience and several appearances on the Chris McCarthy Show which airs in the New Bedford, MA area.

The Lane House and Learning Center: Rev. Steve and Mrs. Edith Craft are now the resident caretakers of the Lane House and I have become the manager.  Camp Constitution has already sponsored several events at the house, and will be using it on a regular basis. It will also house Sam Blumenfeld’s papers and books including some of his original manuscripts.

Camp Constitution’s 12th Annual Family Camp:  We expect the largest turnout in our 12 year history.

 

Here are a few suggestions to help us expand our program and influence:
* Write an article for our camp blog.
* Become a donor. Donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website https://www.campconstitution.net
* Attend our annual family camp or, if you can’t attend, help sponsor a worthy young person or family.
*Sponsor a camp speaker and/or host a “What is Camp Constitution Presentation
, * Subscribe, view and share our videos on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN7ME18Q1xiqcrPEn5h5FbA
* Keep Camp Constitution in your prayers, and pray for our nation.

Our mission statement is summed up in our motto:    Honoring the Past….Teaching the Present……Preparing the Future

Thanks to all of you who help make Camp Constitution possible.

Hal Shurtleff, Director
Camp Constitution

Schedule for Camp Constitution’s 12th Annual Family Camp July 19-24, 2020

Published July 7, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

Camp Constitution’s annual famiy camp is lesss than two weeks away.  Like every year, we have an excellent line-up of classes, instructors and actiivities.  Here is a link to the general schedule and classes for the older campers and adults: https://campconstitution.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2020CampClassSched.pages.pdf (This does not include our Junior Camper Schedule).  We are expecting an excellent turnout with many first-time attendees.

As a charitable trust, we keep our  tuitions low and since our first camp in 2009, we never turned away a camper or family for lack of funds. and we hope that we won’t turn away any in 2020.  Please consider a donation to help with a camper’s tution.  A full tuition is $300. but we will accept donations of any size.  Donations can be made via our PayPal account accessed from our website’s homepage https://www.campconstitution.net or via a check payable to Camp Constitution and send to me C/O Camp 12 March Ave.  West Roxbury, MA  02132.  If you have questions, please call me at (857) 498-1309

Hal Shurtleff, Director

Camp Constitution

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Italian American Alliance Defending Columbus and Exposing the Lies of Howard Zinn

Published July 6, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff
THE ITALIAN AMERICAN ALLIANCE OPPOSES DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ALL PEOPLE.  WE PROUDLY PROMOTE OUR ITALIAN HERITAGE WHICH INCLUDES THE GREAT ADMIRAL CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS—AND WE WELCOME PEOPLE OF ALL RACES, ETHNIC GROUPS, AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES INTO OUR GREAT ALLIANCE FAMILY WHICH NOW INCLUDES:
Two Thousand Three Hundred and  52 Members
   
THE DUMB THUGS MADE A MISTAKE
           The dumb thugs who vandalized the statues of Christopher Columbus in Boston and in other places made a serious mistake. In their minds, they thought that Italian Americans would become depressed and quietly surrender our Heritage to them. All it proved was that they are wrong and dumb.
         What the statue’s vandals accomplished was to outrage Italian Americans as well as our very many friends. It has taken us to a firmer resolve. The bigotry that the fake historian and liar Howard Zinn imposed upon Italian Americans who identify with Columbus is incalculable.
         Statues can always be restored and put back in place. The true task ahead is to save our children from the poisonous writing of Liar Zinn’s ‘Peoples’ History of the United States’. This means we must embark on the path of teaching teachers, and influencing School Committees. Mary Grabar’s best selling ‘Debunking Howard Zinn’ will be an important part of that effort. (The book, which is winning rave reviews by historians, is difficult to find since it has already sold out of its first two printings –however, a new hardcover edition is due out in July and a paperback edition is due to be out in August.)
         With 2.6 million copies of Liar Zinn’s trash sold to the public schools every year, there’s a lot of money on the other side. So, it will be a tough fight – but it’s a fight worth having. Otherwise, the disease of Marxist Socialism that Liar Zinn promotes will infect more children.
         Meanwhile, we take this opportunity to present once again a condensed series of the true Christopher Columbus by the noted anthropologist Dr. Carol Delaney.
__________________________________________________________
Editor’s Note: Readers interested in this series may purchase “Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem” by Carol Delaney at your local book store. If it’s sold out, insist to have them order a copy for you from Free Press – a Division of Simon & Schuster.
COLUMBUS AND THE QUEST FOR JERUSALEM
by
CAROL DELANEY
PART I. A STARTING POINT
                  As you know, many people are calling to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day –indeed some cities and towns have already done so.
I have no problem with an Indigenous Peoples’ Day but I am very much opposed to it as a replacement for Columbus Day. We need to learn more about Indigenous peoples, but people also need to know more about Columbus.
Most people, even professors, know very little about him. Before I began my research, I too, knew hardly anything except “that in 1492 he sailed across the ocean blue.” I never imagined I would write a book about him.
Here is how it began.
In the fall of 1999 I was teaching a class at Stanford called “Millennial Fever” in order to observe the apocalyptic frenzy that was gripping the United States over the turn of the millennium. We also explored the history of the religious underpinnings of apocalyptic millennial thought. In one of the readings I came across a tiny footnote about Columbus’s apocalyptic millennial beliefs.
I was stunned. I had never heard of this, nor had any of the historians at Stanford. I was intrigued since a lot of my academic work has focused on religion [critically].
I started to read some books about Columbus but quickly became dissatisfied because NONE of them mentioned his religious beliefs, certainly not his apocalyptic beliefs. Instead they seemed to treat him as if he were just like us and only his clothes and his ships were different.
And that is a problem.
I am an anthropologist and our purpose is to try to understand people in their cultural context because that influences how they think and how they act. People during Columbus’s time didn’t think of separate/different religions –there was only one true belief and way of life –the Christian way. Other beliefs and life ways were simply false.
Anthropologists generally study living cultures [my own fieldwork, for example, was conducted in a Turkish village] but if “the past is another country” as the saying goes, it seemed reasonable that I could visit Columbus’s world. I began to read a lot about 14th and 15th century Europe to get a sense of the world into which he was born.
1.    First, the universe was very small and the earth was at the center—the sun, the moon, and stars revolved around the earth.
2.    The earth had only three parts: Europe, Africa, and Asia –thought to have been peopled by the 3 sons of Noah!
3.    Jerusalem was at the center where the 3 parts met.
4.    People believed that there were only 7 millennia to the Earth’s existence – one millennium for each day of creation and people thought the End was near. Columbus had twice figured out how many years were left.
5.    Before the End of the world, Jerusalem had to be in Christian hands for that was where Christ would come in judgement. It was the duty of Christians to evangelize and try to convert non-Christians so they could be saved. It was an outrage that Jerusalem was held by Muslims.
6.    Although a number of crusades had been launched to recapture it, none had succeeded. As a boy, Columbus witnessed a crusade launched from Genoa –perhaps that is where he first got the idea.
[BY THE WAY: Columbus makes clear in several places that he was born in Genoa. In his will, he left money in the bank in Genoa to care for the people in his lineage…”since from it I came, and in it I was born.”]
People thought the end was near because of several events: The Bubonic Plague took the lives of 25 to 50 million people, and there were still outbreaks of it. There was also a schism in the Catholic Church whereby there were two Popes – one in Avignon and one in Rome and the schism was not resolved until the 15th century.
But the capstone to all of these turbulent events was the conquest of Constantinople by Muslims in 1453. This was devastating especially to the Genoese because they had a large trading colony there.
Muslims were clearly in the ascendant. Now they blocked not only the overland pilgrimage rout to Jerusalem but also cut off the trade route to the riches of the East that had been established by Franciscans and especially Marco Polo. Columbus’s copy of Polo’s Travels is well annotated and is one of the nine books from the library that still exist.
Columbus had a large library, and he knew three languages – Genoese, Latin, and Castilian Spanish. Genoese was not a written language so Columbus’s writings are mostly in Castilian Spanish and a few in Latin. Yet I still hear people, including TV news people, claim that Columbus was illiterate!!
Marco Polo, as well as the Franciscans, believed that the Grand Khan of Cathay [what we think of as China] was interested in Christianity, for he had asked that friars be sent to instruct him and his subjects. Some, like Polo and then Columbus, began to think that perhaps the Grand Khan could be persuaded to launch a crusade from the East as the Europeans marched from the West to recapture Jerusalem!!
Because the overland route to the East was blocked, most thought the only alternative was to sail down the coast of Africa to reach the Indian Ocean. This was the route explored by the Portuguese. Columbus had sailed with them a number of times but he was already thinking of going West across the ocean because Marco Polo said the landmass of Asia was huge and thus the ocean separating it from Europe must be quite narrow.
While sailing to Iceland for the Portuguese Columbus had experienced eastward flowing currents. Later when he passed the Canary Islands he felt westward flowing ones and decided that would be the place to start a westward crossing. Columbus petitioned the Portuguese to sponsor the voyage but since they were making progress taking the route around Africa they were not interested.
Columbus did not give up: he sent his brother to England while he went to Spain. His wife had died and now Columbus had his young son Diego in tow; together they sailed to the Port of Palos de la Frontera, from where, 7 years later, the first voyage would depart. They arrived sometime in the summer of 1485 and climbed up to the Franciscan monastery of La Rabida. Columbus had always been partial to the Franciscans and his friends noted that he was a passionate man of ardent faith. For example, Bartholome de las Casas knew Columbus and said this about his faith:
    “He observed the fasts of the church most faithfully, confessed
and made communion often, read the canonical offices, like a member of a religious order, hated blasphemy and swearing and was most devoted to Our Lady and St. Francis and was grateful to God for benefits received and was especially devoted to the idea that God should deem him worthy of aiding somewhat in recovering the Holy Sepulcher.”
Columbus and Diego were well received at La Rabida and lived there for several years while the monks worked on getting him an audience with Queen Isabella.
[I have visited La Rabida and the current monks are very proud of their connection to Columbus; they have preserved, relatively intact, several rooms where Columbus spent time.]
THE VOYAGE
               Columbus met Isabella in May 1486. She was clearly taken with him. She, too, was partial to the Franciscans, and was also interested in the recovery of Jerusalem as her grandfather and uncle had made that pilgrimage. She was quick to agree with Columbus’s plan because the Pope had given to Portugal all the land along the coast of Africa [as well as the right to enslave any Muslims or pagans they encountered.] That decree is known as Romanus Pontifex.
         Isabella submitted Columbus’s proposal to a committee for further study. It would be a long wait. During this time, Columbus met Beatriz de Harana. Though the daughter of peasants she was educated and could read and write –qualities that appealed to Columbus. They soon became a couple and in 1488 their son Ferdinand was born.
         In 1490 the Commission rejected Columbus’s proposal. So did a second commission. Columbus had been waiting 6 years and thinking about his project for a decade. He decided to go to France and was already on the road when a confidant of the Queen rushed to find him and brought him back telling Isabella she was losing a great opportunity at little cost.
         She signed the papers in April11492 and told the people of Palos to prepare ships for the voyage. As you know these were the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.
         Once underway Columbus began to keep a diary –very unusual at the time, since not all sailors could write, and even if they could, they jotted down only wind, direction, and speed. At the beginning of the diary he recapitulated his understanding of the voyage. He wrote that he hoped to meet the person who “is called the Grand Kahn which means in our Spanish language “King of Kings”. To see how the conversion to our Holy Faith might be undertaken because so many times he had asked for men learned in our Holy Faith in order that they might instruct him in it and how the Holy Father had never provided them; and thus so many people were lost, falling into idolatry and accepting false and harmful sects. And you commanded that I should NOT go to the East by way of land. But by the route to the West,….by which route we do not know for certain that anyone previously has passed.”
The purpose of the voyage was to set up a trading post to obtain gold and spices that would finance the crusade. There was absolutely no intention of enslaving or killing the people belonging to the greatest empire in the world.
Finally, on August 3, 1492 the small fleet slipped away from Palos into the unknown. Columbus was confident and began to think of himself as Christ-bearer, like his namesake Christopher, carrying the Christian faith across the waters. But the men were afraid they might run out of food before they reached land and may also run into monstrous races described by Pliny.
Their anxiety increased when the rudder of the Pinto came loose on their way to the Canaries. Then there was an eruption of a volcano on the nearby island of Tenerife – Not good omens. But finally, they set out on the unchartered ocean and sailed due West.
Late in September they got entangled in the Sargasso Sea and saw some birds so they thought they might be approaching land But the crew became anxious and demanded that if they did not find land within three days, they should turn around before they ran out of food. Amazingly, in the next couple of days there were more signs that they were getting close. Late at night on October 11 Rodrigo de Triana, on board the Pinta called out, Tierra –Land. They sat out the night in great anticipation.
Their vigil was rewarded. Early morning a veil of mist opened and Columbus and crew ”saw an island. ..full of green trees and abounding in springs with a large lagoon in the middle.” Columbus was relieved: he had crossed the ocean no one thought possible and done so in 33 days—a feat that few sailors in small boats have surpassed –and had instinctively chosen the route that such sailors continue t follow.
October 12 is the date that Columbus wrote in his Diary but –he was using the Julian calendar whereas we use the Gregorian which was not adopted until 1582. Between the two is a difference of 10 days.
So, actually our holiday commemorates a day when he was still at sea.
  THE LANDING –
The crew scrambled ashore, kissed the ground, and thanked God for bringing them safely across the great water. Columbus called it San Salvador for their salvation.
Soon “a multitude of people hastened to the shore astounded and marveling at the sight of the ships.”
Columbus’s impulse towards the people was one of benevolence and friendship motivated by a concern for their conversion.
“I, in order that they would be friendly to us – because I recognized that they were a people who would be better freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force—gave them red caps and glass beads and many other small things in which they took so much pleasure and became so much our friends that it was a marvel.”
They “came swimming to the ships”. And brought us parrots and cotton thread and many other things, and they traded them to us.” Then his description of the people, reflecting an almost anthropological attention to detail, comes across as objective, writing what he saw with his own eyes:
“All of them go around naked as their mothers bore them. They are very well formed, with handsome bodies and good faces. Their hair is coarse. Almost like the tail of a horse – and short except for a little in back which they wear long.”
The natives must have been astonished to see such heavily dressed men with beards since they had very little facial hair. Columbus also marveled at their small swift boats that he would soon call by the native name “canoe”.
We now know that they had arrived in the Bahamas, but Columbus imagined they had landed on one of the many islands described by Marco Polo and was eager to find the land of the Grand Khan.
So they continued on, passing islands all “very green with sweet smelling breezes.”
Columbus’s eyes pained him and his descriptions give a sense of the therapeutic value of their beauty.
“I also walked among those trees, which were more beautiful to see than any other thing that has been seen. I d not know where to go first; nor do my eyes grow tired of seeing such beautiful verdure and so different from ours…and the smell of the flowers or trees that came from the land was so good and soft that it was the sweetest thing in the world.”
He was overwhelmed not only by the beauty of the trees and flowers but also of the fish and the birds and uses the words “marvel” or “marvelous” too many times to count.
He also marveled at the natives’ houses and especially at their “hammocks” which would soon solve the sleeping problems of all sailors.
Columbus also understood that they were not speaking gibberish as so many Europeans attributed to “primitive” peoples but that it was one language and he began to learn some words vowing “that little by little I will progress in understanding and will have this tongue taught to people in my household.”
They headed toward a large island called Cuba which he thought might be Cipango [Japan} and thus thought he would soon reach China because he wrote: “I have decided to go to Quinsay and give Your Highnesses letters to the Grand Khan.”
Columbus noted how generous the natives were and demanded from his men that there be an exchange of goods. This would become a common refrain as the sailors were rapacious. But while he had control of them he said: “ I did not allow anything to be taken, not even the value of a pin.”
         In early December they reached Haiti which he named Hispanola and when those natives came aboard he
“ordered that they should be treated courteously because they are the best and most gentle people in the world, and especially because I have much hope in Our Lord that Your Highnesses will make all of them Christians.”
But he was becoming very much annoyed with his sailors when he sent them ashore to explore and compared them unfavorably with the dignity and generosity of the natives. News of his arrival traveled fast and soon he received an invitation from Guacanagari, chief of another area.
         On December 24 they set out in his direction but they arrived last. So they anchored outside the harbor to wait out the night.
The person on watch was careless and before dawn Columbus felt his ship go aground. They were unable to save the ship and he named the place Navidad because it was “born” from the Santa Maria.
As soon as Guacanagari saw what happened he sent his people to help unload the ship and had their goods safely stored. Columbus invited him to dinner on the Nina but the chief had already ordered a feast for his men and he and Columbus exchanged gifts.
Robert Fuson, one translator of Columbus’s diary wrote:
“Columbus expresses nothing but love and admiration for the Indians. His affection for the young chief Guacanagari, and vice versa is one of the most touching stories of love, trust, and understanding between men of different races and cultures to come out of this period in history.”
Columbus had equally effusive praise for the islanders:
         “I believe that in this world there are no better people or better land. They love their neighbors like themselves, and they have the sweetest speech in the world and are gentle and always laughing.”
To him, they ad already seemed to be natural Christians and he hoped that the friars would be sent to teach them about the faith so they would become true Christians and thus saved.
But his situation was precarious. Martin Minzon, the captain of the Pinta had taken off weeks earlier hoping he would be the first one to fid gold so they had only the tiny Nina left. Some men would have to be left behind while Columbus returned to Spain to get a rescue ship. He wrote in his diary that when he returned hoped to:
         “find a barrel of gold that those left behind would have acquired by exchange; and that they would have found the gold mine and the spicers, and those things in such quantity that the sovereigns, before three years [are over] will undertake and prepare to go  conquer the Holy Sepulcher : for thus I urged Your Highnesses to spend all the profits this my enterprise on the conquest of Jerusalem.”
The phrase “for thus I urged” implies that they had already discussed the ultimate goal.
         Columbus told the men who would remain to strip the Santa Maria and to build some lodgings for themselves and ordered them to “do no harm to the people and to respect chief Guacanagari to whom they owed so much.” Guacanagari held a farewell feast inviting other chiefs to attend.
On January 4, 1493 Columbus said good bye to the chief and the men who would remain. He also took six of the natives, one of whom was a relative to the chief. He said more wanted to come. They were definitely not slaves as many have claimed. On their way they caught up with Pinzon who had captured “four native men and 2 young girls by force,” and Columbus ordered they be returned to their homes. “
Sometime later they met a very fierce group of natives who attacked them with bows and arrows. These were the Caribs and the natives on board were clearly afraid of them. Columbus noticed that their language, hair styles and body ornamentation were different, as was their demeanor,
One scholar believes that
         “The most advanced concept Columbus offered was that of a cultural region –unified by language and customs”—obviously aware that not all the people he was encountering were the same.

Happy Birthday America: The Declaration of Independence: A Presentation by Patriotic Historian Richard Howell

Published July 4, 2020 | By Hal Shurtleff

 

We at Camp Constitution believe that, with all its flaws, past and present, the United States is the greatest nation in the history of the world.  We salute the brave patriots who signed the Declaration of Independence.  At our 2017 family camp. Rich Howell gave is the best presentation on the subject of the Declaration of Independence:  Please share far and wide

Happy Independence Day 2020

Designed by Eric Conover.