David Ramsay was one of the first to write a history of the American Revolution. His very whiggish work was published first published in 1787. Ramsay begins with his account with the discovery of the Americas itself. Considering current controversy over memorialization one passage about Christopher Columbus really jumps out. I took the liberty of breaking it into two different paragraphs for readability and clarity. Here it is:
“When we consider the immense floods of gold and silver, which have flowed from it in to Europe, the subsequent increase of industry and population, the prodigious extension of commerce, manufactures, and navigation, and the influence of the whole on manners and arts, we see such an accumulation of good, as leads us to rank Columbus among the greatest benefactors of the human race…”
“…but when we view the injustice done the natives—the extirpation of many of their numerous nations, whose names are no more heard—the havoc made among the first settlers—the slavery of the Africans, to which America has furnished temptation—and the many long and bloody wars which has occasioned; we behold such crowd woes, excites apprehension that the evil has outweighed the good.”
From David Ramsay, The History of the American Revolution (1787; Lexington, KY.: Downing and Phillips, 1815), 1 24. Available on hathitrust.org courtesy of Pennsylvania State University.
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