Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress

The author of this selection seems more keen on focusing the attention away from the European settlers who established their colonies in America after Columbus's discovery, but rather on the atrocities committed to establish said settlement.

Columbus and his men more or less pillaged the Native Americans villages, forcing them to work and throwing their lives into disarray. The Europeans considered the Native Americans as a vastly less superior group than themselves and gathered that "they would make fine servants" as though just by looking at them, they immediately knew what purpose they served for them.

The bias seems to be more on the side of the indigenous people, but the author makes it clear that he doesn't want to "romanticize" the struggles of the natives. He also avoids painting Columbus and his men out as monsters. He even emphasizes the point that the exploited people of the Americas were not always innocent victims by describing some morbid practices of the Aztec people. The Aztecs were well known for their methods of appeasing the gods by sacrificing human beings. After addressing that, though, the author then states that despite those practices, they still had some degree of innocence.

In any event, the overall bias is on the side of the Native Americans and does not make any effort to justify the actions of the European settlers against them.