Blog #9: Was Columbus a hero or villian?

         Every October Americans have a day off for Columbus day, a time to remember the hero who discovered the New World and ultimately caused the existence of their nation. But some remembrances spur people to question the holiday and wonder whether Columbus was a hero at all. However, history cannot be defined in such black and white terms. Christopher Columbus was, in a way, a hero, but was a villain to a greater extent.

        When the explorer dropped anchor in what he thought were the East Indies and was greeted by the Native Americans, Columbus's first reaction, according to his logs, was not to thank these strangers for their hospitality, but to evaluate their potential for servitude. He recorded that the Arawak men and women swam out to them and "willingly traded everything they owned".  After listing all the ways the American Indians had shown his crew kindness he stated "They would make fine servants... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want". Columbus had no sense of humanity when it came to the natives, and only thought of money and conquest: hardly the traits of a hero.

       Unlike the stories told to elementary students, Columbus should not even get credit for being the first to spot land on the horizon. The reward for this feat was a yearly pension of 10,000 maravedis for life, so naturally, when a sailor by the name of Roderigo declared his sightings, Christopher Columbus lied and said he had seen land the night before. Not only did he disregard the welfare of the Indians, Columbus put his own interests before those of his men; another point towards his eerie similarity to Cruella Deville. 

      Once established on land, Columbus immediately wrote the Spanish monarchs in Madrid a very embellished letter declaring "Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful… the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. . . . There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals....", his lies revealing -- yet again -- his lack of regard for morality or anything other than him looking like a hero to the Europeans, which is probably a major reason most people remembered him as a hero until fairly recently.

     Some historians still hold this opinion however, and claim Columbus's contributions to global development and the events leading into the modern era should not be forgotten or set aside in light of his other actions. And while these historians do hold some merit, the same could be said in rebuttal. Should we make light of Christopher Columbus's crimes against humanity simply because he opened opportunities for trade? Were lives of the natives less important than Europe's economy? Should we celebrate the man who initiated the genocide of the American Indians? The answer is no; we cannot recognize Christopher Columbus as a hero when the majority of his actions were worthy of a fictional villain.

        

Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 caused thousands of Indian's deaths remembered as the Trail of Tears. His appearance on the twenty dollar bill has sparked debate over whether he deserves that honor, similarly to the debate over Columbus day. The Treasury department is still working on redesigning the bill to have Harriet Tubman's face instead, as she is more unanimously viewed as an American hero.