Just so you all know, whenever I sat down to write this blog, I have completely forgotten what I was going to write about. It takes me from ten to twenty minutes to remember what it was.
And now I remember!
So you all (probably) know this poem. I actually never learned it back in elementary school, so I was a little confused when I first heard the poem. But here it is
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.
A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.
Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.
Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.
Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.
Yada yada yada. I’m not going to put more here in fear of it not counting towards my word count. But yeah! Most people know of this poem and about how when Columbus came, he had a nice dinner with the locals. But that is all very far from the truth. We are told and taught to idolize the man as the discoverer of America and for befriending the local populace, yet there are truths being hidden.
From what I have read, he was an absolutely terrible person. He took on the role of ignorant white settler and abused his power. He demanded that the Native Americans work for him and the other settlers. You would imagine that he would at least try to get to know the indigenous people, try to talk to them before he started on his self-fulfilled tirade through the lands, but no. According to his journal, he ordered six people to be seized and forced them to be his servants.
Unfortunately, that’s not the end of his crimes. Throughout his time in the “New World” he, and his companions, forced hundreds of people into slavery. There was a specific time where he shipped a couple thousand slaves over the ocean to Spain in order to be sold. Countless peoples died on the way. He devastated the population. In order to control the population, he ruled the people with an iron fist. He brutally executed people who rebelled and then paraded the bodies through the streets.
This next part you all probably know, but he brought so many diseases that the natives had no resistance to.
I would say that I am regretful to bring you this truth, but I am not. I feel like we should all look at what Christopher Columbus has done and condemn his actions rather than glorify them. We teach our children at a very young age what a great man he was and how he was the “father” of America. The same applies to Thanksgiving. While it’s a good idea to have a day to give thanks to what has gotten us this far, we shouldn’t be putting Columbus up on a pedestal.
That is always such a topic of conversation as the holiday approaches. I think he is so widely acknowledged as this “hero” because he is the easiest person we can thank for discovering America. He is in children’s books, stories, poems, songs, so it is pretty much impossible to get by without knowing who he is. The unfortunate thing is that most people are less familiar with the other groups who had been and found America before. The Native Americans are not given a holiday; the Vikings are not given a holiday. In this case, Columbus is what is easiest for us to relate to when we think of the discovery of America because of what we have been taught.
I actually hate the statement that Christopher Columbus discovered America, just for the simply fact that he DIDNT. You can not discover somewhere people already originated and lived for God knows how long. I really like this post of trying to expose what he was actually like. In history when someone does something for the first time in this case sail the Atlantic Ocean, they are often prized for their achievements but not their personalities. In this case, his horrible attitude and ethnocentrism.
I love, love ,love this post ! It connects to me because I am now in Soc 119 a race and relation class where we are covering so much about the U.S and founding people.I have always had a STRONG dislike for Christopher Columbus. I find it absolutely repulsive that we no still celebrate a day named after a guy who did nothing! You can not find something that was already being inhabited by people, therefore it is not new or discovered! I could go on and on about this topic.
Great post I loved reading it. I look forward to your other post especially if they are as interesting as this one.