Do you remember celebrating Columbus Day when you were a child?
I vaguely remember reading about his accomplishments and recall being taught that he was a hero and a great explorer. We were not given a ton of information about his faith, his prayers, or his desire to spread Christianity, but we were taught that he was a man we should admire and celebrate each Columbus Day.
Needless to say, Columbus had some pride issues and he desired recognition, power and wealth—he was a sinner no doubt. But these folks who are protesting at the Columbus Day parades and who are pressuring school districts to shun the holiday are out of line and not reading history in context. Perhaps they have some new politically correct history books written by Columbia professors (with no original sources or bibliographies) that they are clinging to?
It is so sad and unfortunate, but today, special interest groups are depicting Columbus as an evil person in order to promote their own political and social agenda’s. As usual these groups are small but very vocal and sometimes militant. Columbus has been called “The Hitler of the 15th century,” as well as a murderer, robber, slave-trader, and racist. These groups have helped convince people of these lies by comparing the values of a Renaissance man with those of a person in our contemporary world. For example, regarding the accusation of him capturing and selling slaves….perhaps we should add some context. Upon his return from Hispaniola, Columbus did capture Indians after all of his men had been massacred by the Taino tribe. He and his men captured 2000 Indians from this tribe and took 500 as POW’s who were then sold as slaves as was the custom in 15th century Europe. Slavery was not only practiced in Europe but it was also practiced in the Caribbean by the Caribs and Canibs who would kill their slaves and then eat them (cannibalism).
