Why We Shouldn't Celebrate Columbus Day Essay

According to Document 6, Joel Barlow a renowned historian, Columbus was a remarkable young man who was proficient in geography, astronomy, and drawing, all of them necessary for his pursuit of navigation. His courage and perseverance had been put to test many times making him a universally known and respected man. But, even though he was well respected, he was not a good man. He was barbaric to the Native Americans even when they treated him with respect and fervor. He enslaved them for the good of “Christianity” and manipulated them because they were “idiots”.

“Let’s Take Back Columbus Day” is an article explaining why Americans should be proud of it’s beginning in history. It goes into great detail of how many years ago, Americans would patriotically celebrate Columbus day but modern Americans seem to be ashamed of celebrating such a holiday. In modern America, we’ve been taught that Columbus and his men brought havoc to the natives and destroyed the land. The article claims that such a view is offensive to America and it’s beginning because America was not the original source of slavery, racism, disease, and warfare; it was the cure for these things by using reason and developing individualism. All throughout history, humans seemed oblivious to the most obvious of concepts. Before the creation of ancient Greece, people believe in animistic spirits and gods that had the powers to control the natural world. For the people to get the favor of the gods, they performed sacrifices and rituals and prayed for the gods to show them the way. These mystic beliefs led to the downfalls of many societies, began epidemics of disease and poverty, and made

Furthermore, Columbus began enslaving the natives for more reasons than free labor. He needed something profitable to show the King and Queen of Spain, and Columbus decided that Europe could use slaves too. Columbus was planning a return trip home to Spain. His idea was to bring some Arawaks with him and show them to the King and Queen of Spain. Queen Isabella would see how valuable a slave market could be, and she would give Columbus more money and the title that he was promised. Ever since day one, Columbus made his thoughts and intentions extremely well-known through the bindings of his journal. In one excerpt from his journal, Columbus wrote, “They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want” (Columbus qtd. in Zinn 1). Christopher Columbus did not think about how his actions would impact others. Columbus thought about what would turn a profit for himself. Columbus packed up and left for his voyage back to Spain with Arawak peoples on board his ships. Unfortunately, many Arawaks did not make it to Spain because they died on the voyage. Still desperate for

Christopher Columbus is commonly known as the “discoverer” of the Americas. From a young age students are taught all the wonderful things he did for our land and how well he interacted with the Natives. Although the truth is disregarded and as students grow, they come to learn that Columbus was not a hero in fact. Columbus came close to causing a genocide of the Native Americans, and basically began the “white power” movement that America is forced to deal with today. The truth of what Christopher Columbus did makes him no better than Hitler, yet America still praises him as an important figure in our history. The actions of Columbus has impacted all Americans lives since the 1400’s when he first landed on American soil. Although it did make America into the super power it is today, the structure within the borders will never be equal because of his abuse of power back then. Christopher Columbus is not the hero American students are taught from a young age and does not deserve any of the praise or recognition that we as American citizens continue to give him on a daily basis.

In 1492, Italian cartographer and explorer, Christopher Columbus, set off on a mission from Spain in order to find a quicker, alternative route to Asia. With him, Columbus brought eighty-seven men and three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María, to sail across the large and vast Atlantic Ocean. Unfortunately for Columbus, a new route to Asia was never discovered by Spain that year because he had arrived in the Caribbean, which was found in North America. Thinking that he had just entered the Indies, he started to call the people of this land, “Indians”. These Indians were actually Native Americans who had lived on these lands for thousands of years prior. Immediately, letters from Columbus to the King and Queen of Spain were sent by boat back to Europe and soon Columbus was seen as the man who helped create a bridge of prosperous trading and riches between Europe and “Asia”.1 While this discovery proved that Columbus was a hero-like figure to Spain, it’s what he did within the new land that actually makes him one of the biggest villains to ever set foot on Earth. But what classifies this explorer as a villain? Columbus captured thousands of natives, many of which were sent back to Spain to live and work as slaves. Along with that, Columbus also forced the Christian religion onto them, spread diseases that killed thousands of lives, and used violence as a means of persuasion and control.2 Corrupted by his pursuit of riches,

Some say that Columbus Day shouldn't be a holiday or that the name should be changed, I believe that we should get rid of the holiday. When you are little, you are taught Christopher Columbus discovered America and he's a good person; however, in reality, none of that is true. Columbus didn't discover America, he found some islands in the Caribbean like Haiti and Cuba. In addition, he treated the Natives there with harsh cruelties. Columbus also brought over diseases that lead to the death of many natives because they weren't exposed to measles, influenza, small pox. “Christopher Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized race relations and

Every October, people celebrate Columbus Day for the things that he did. For example, the Columbian Exchange. But also, the people are celebrating to a person that did many bad things. Christopher Columbus should be remembered negatively because he did many awful things to the Native Americas. Like rape, kill. torture, and other awful things.

There has been a heated discussion about changing columbus day to native peoples day. This argument for getting rid of columbus day is flawed and quite hypocritical. This group Is claiming we should get rid of columbus day due to the fact he killed and enslaved the native people of the nations he visited. Christopher columbus and his men did kill and enslave the native people but, that was normal for that time period. Also how could Christopher columbus kill so many with less than 200 men? The answer is simple, he joined the ongoing tribal warfare that was taking place at the time. The tribes there already had mass graves, slaughtered and enslaved each other. This didn’t just start when columbus came around, the aztecs were

Columbus Day is being contested by Native American groups, stating that the indigenous tribes were inhabiting the land long before Columbus. Activist are opposed to the celebration, honoring a man who has cause oppression, disease, slavery and death among the Natives. In article hero of villain page 7, historian Alfred Cosby wrote of the havoc produced by diseases the Europeans brought to Native American. James Loewen book The Truth about Columbus later adding in Lies My Teacher Told Me wrote how Columbus was linked with the despoiling of ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬natural environment.

America should still celebrate Columbus Day, even though he was in charge for killing thousands of innocent people he still did have the right idea and stuck with it to find new land and gold to make spain richer, himself too. He had to beg and beg for the king and queen to give him ships for along time, 1 year exactly, once he was granted it he put so much time, his whole life, to find what he didn't know was actually real or there. Even though Amerigo Vespucci found the actual land, Columbus was the one who had the right idea and gave Vespucci the idea to go searching for it. Without Columbus no one would have found it or even knew it was there. Some people think that it shouldn't be counted because he did get innocent people killed, many

We should not celebrate Columbus day. We should not celebrate columbus day because columbus did not find amaria first people were already living there. In the article, It states, while others may have reached America before him. If people got there before columbus then he did not discover america. Most people celebrate columbus day because he discovered america if he did not discover america why should he get a holiday. columbus just found land he did not even go in america he just found land that already had people on it. In the text it states, if Columbus knew the United States had a holiday honoring him -- even though he never actually set foot in any of the now superpower's 50 states. Why should we celebrate some one who did not even step

Columbus didn’t discover anything new, making a reason why we shouldn’t celebrate Columbus Day. Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America. He could have discover a place where people had already live there for years. Columbus contributed nothing to European knowledge. Columbus having no actual discovery meant that there wasn’t anything new to learn. Columbus also didn’t convert any natives to Christianity. “The Indians of the Caribbean were destroyed within two generations by the spanish discovers” (Source 1). Columbus Day shouldn’t be celebrated since Christopher Columbus himself was a cruel man.

Indians fourteen years or older were forced to collect gold to bring to Columbus and his crew. If they didn’t, they would have their hands cut off and would bleed to death. Whenever the Indians disagreed with Columbus or refused to trade, they were met with ferocity and cruelty from Columbus and his crew. In 1495, Columbus rounded up 1500 Native Americans to be sold as slaves. Most of the slaves were put into pens, while 500 of the best specimens were loaded onto ships. The Indians soon resorted to suicide to escape the atrocity of the European invaders. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards. Within two years of Columbus’s arrival in the New World, 125,000 Native Americans on Haiti were dead. The Spaniards treated the Indians like animals, and rode on their backs or were carried in hammocks if they did not feel like walking. In my opinion, the atrocities that Columbus and his crew committed against the Indians are comparable to the crimes Adolf Hitler committed against the Jews during the holocaust in World War

It's no secret that shortly after his arrival Columbus started to enslave the natives, he was extremely violent and brutal towards them. It was almost as if he didn't see them as actual human beings which is sickening to think about. Columbus sent thousands of peaceful “Indians” to Spain to be sold. Many died and those left behind were forced to search for gold in mines and on

A Spaniard by the name of Christopher Columbus set sail on a voyage heading west across the Atlantic Ocean to Asia. This 1492 voyage turned out to be a discovery of another continent, America. Columbus thought that he had reached East Indies, but was in fact, in the Caribbean. The native people that inhabited the island were curious to see these new visitors and came out to greet them. The natives or ?Indians? as Columbus called them were friendly and generous people, giving gifts to the European travelers. Soon after the arrival, the Europeans started to take over and take what they pleased. As more Europeans came to the Americas, the population of the Indians declined in great numbers. The Europeans brought many dreadful diseases and had