Pagan customs shared by both African and Caribbean culture defined everything different from European norms at the time. Although similar, the culture of Caribbean inhabitants described by Christopher Columbus was better accepted than the black Africans' culture. The reason for the difference in acceptance patterns was the fact that the black Africans were taken out of their natural surrounding and shipped to Europe as slaves, whereas Columbus was first introduced to the Caribbean inhabitants on their natural ground.
When Columbus first started his voyage, the idea was to travel to India. However, instead of reaching India, he found himself on the unknown grounds of the Caribbean islands describing them as "the most fertile, and temperate and flat and good in the whole world "1. As the Caribbean was until then unexplored area for Europeans, Columbus arrived without any preconceived ideas about the land and its inhabitants. The way Europeans portrayed Caribbean inhabitants was solely based on Columbus's observations and records. Without any stereotypes, he described them as the people who are "so affectionate and have so little greed and are in all ways so amenable that I assure your Highnesses that there is in my opinion no better people and no better land in the world "2. Columbus was able to see inhabitants interacting in their natural surrounding, and he perceived them as people who are simple and do not look savage, although "all are populated and make war with one another "3. .
Unfortunately, this was not the case with black Africans. Unlike Caribbean inhabitants, black Africans were first introduced to Europeans in 1440s when they were taken away from the West coast of Africa on cargo ships as slaves. As black Africans were taken out of their natural habitat, and introduced to European society, they were perceived to be "in opposition to the particularly Renaissance vision of white, European culture and civilization "4.
