How did the Caribbean People Die???? MORTALITY!!!!! How did the Caribbean People Die????

Mortality is the incident of death in a population Mortality is the incident of death in a population. It is measured in various ways, often by the probability that a random selected individual in population at some date and location will die in some period of time.

Ways in which Amerindians and Europeans died.

Suicide!!! Many Amerindians committed suicide as a means of revolt. They preferred to die rather than to subject to Spanish cruelty. This was achieved by drinking a poisonous cassava beverage, jumping to their deaths from cliffs, hanging themselves etc. They also committed infanticide as a means of saving their children from growing up in the inhumane life of slavery.

Killing for Sport??!! Hunting - Amerindians did not know of the domestication of animals and so were frightened by large horses and dogs. Spanish took advantage of this fear and they were as a result hunted by blood hounds and ripped to shreds when caught. Spaniards also competed to see who could run a sword completely through the body of an Indigenous person.

Climate and Epidemics The Spanish brought with them many diseases such a Smallpox, yellow fever, measles etc to which the Amerindians had no immunity and as a result died. Many Europeans also died from these diseases as well. The Climatic conditions were alien to Europeans and so many died of heatstroke etc.

Brutality !!! Abuse - Amerindians were worked to death planting and searching for gold. They were beaten and some killed for lack of cooperation. Women were raped by Spanish men and some starved as an act of punishment. Revolt- The Indigenous people poisoned the water of the Spanish, killing many of them, they burnt stores in an attempt to starve the Spanish. There were constant battles in which the Amerindians had managed to defeat the Spanish through vigorous acts of warfare.

SOLUTION FOR MORTALITY-LAS CASAS AND THE NEW LAWS As a result of the high rate of mortality among the Amerindian group. The Humanitarians vied to make a change and came up with the issue of Las Casas in an attempt to protect the surviving few, among the Tainos. Pedro de Cordoba took it upon himself to bring this issue to the crown who had refused his petition numerous times before finally,Bartholome de las casas came to his support and in 1542 the crown passed a body of legal provisions known as The New Laws.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AUGIER F.R, GORDON S.C; SOURCES OF WEST INDIAN HISTORY LONGMAN CARIBBEAN LMT. TRINIDAD AND JAMAICA, 1962. BECKLES H, SHEPHERD V.A; LIBERTIES LOST CARIBBEAN INDIGENOUS SOCIETIES AND SLAVE SYSTEMS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, NEW YORK 2004. HAMILTON-WILLIE D, LEST YOU FORGET RESISTANCE AND REVOLT JAMAICA PUBLISHING HOUSE 2008.