COLUMN: Christopher Columbus was no man worthy of a holiday
I've never been particularly fond of Columbus Day.
I understand that discovering the Americas is kind of a big deal, but the man behind the discovery isn't the hero this country portrays him to be.
Christopher Columbus was always glorified for his accomplishments and portrayed as a great man throughout my time in elementary school.
Sure, everyone knows that, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," but do they know he also enslaved the Arawaks and committed barbaric acts of inhumanity against the people he discovered in the new world?
American Indian history courses at Central Michigan University will tell you the truth behind Columbus, not the censored version that the public education system preaches to grade students. These truths can be found by anyone who bothers to look.
Upon Columbus' arrival in the Bahamas, or what he called San Salvador, he immediately recognized the weaknesses in the Arawak people. After realizing he would not be able to obtain gold from them, he began enslaving them by the thousands, despite the fact that he recognized them as a peaceful people.
Thousands of natives to Hispaniola were killed by Columbus and his men, and thousands of others were enslaved for economic purposes. Columbus refused to baptize any of the natives as Christians because Spanish law would have prohibited him from enslaving them and he even killed some of his own men for betraying him.
Bartolome de las Casas was a Spanish priest who wrote about some of the horrifying acts of violence he witnessed in the new world. Casas witnessed slaves with severed limbs, women and children slaughtered without hesitation and atrocities committed without reason.
By the end of Columbus' days, even the Spanish court had arrested him for a period of time before he was released by King Ferdinand.
I can't help but be frustrated when Columbus Day comes around every second Monday in October and the man is simply remembered for his discoveries.
Go ahead and remember his discovery, but remember that he enslaved an entire group of people without hesitation as well, killing any that resisted.
Remember that he justified his actions by deeming the Arawaks as lesser people because their religious views didn't match his own, but wouldn't even give the Arawaks the opportunity to become Christian.
I'm not advocating for elementary school teachers to tell the entire truth about Columbus to 7 or 8-year-olds, but I hope that they discover who the real Columbus was at some point in their lives. His discoveries certainly made an impact on the future of the Americas, but he seems to fit the villian role in this story, not the heroic one.
