We’re human beings with the blood of a million savage years
on our hands. But we can stop it. We can admit that we’re
killers, but we won’t kill today.
Captain James T. Kirk
Starship Enterprise
Recently, Michael Cascio, wrote an impassioned letter which appeared under the headline “Celebrating Italian-American Heritage.”
He wrote about “a people being proud…” He accurately pointed out “Columbus lived in a much different time” and while he doesn’t, specifically say so, he makes the case that historic figures should be judged “in the context of their times.”
Referring to Columbus, he states “…let us celebrate his courage, forgive his indiscretions, and give the Italian people their day to hold their heads up high.”
Hard to argue against such logical beliefs.
Why, then, the controversy? The answer lies in answering the question — what did Columbus say and do? In his book Columbus: His Enterprise, Hans Koning writes:
Every man and woman in the province of
Cibao…had to collect gold for the Spaniards.
As their measure, the Spaniards used…hawks’
bells …Every three months every Indian had
to bring to one of the forts a hawks’ bell filled
with gold dust …Copper tokens were
manufactured and when an Indian brought his or her
tribute to an armed post, he or she received
such a token…Whoever was caught without a
token was killed by having his or her hands cut
off. There are old Spanish prints…that show
this being done: the Indians stumble away
staring with surprise at their arm stumps
spouting blood.
And later Koning writes:
Thus it was at this time that the mass
suicides began. The Arawaks killed themselves
with cassava poison. During [the] two years
of the administration of the brothers Columbus
` an estimated one-half of the population of
Hispaniola was killed or killed themselves.
The estimates run from one hundred and twenty
five thousand to one half million.
If one questions these statements one need only turn to the writings of Columbus himself. In a letter to Raphael Sanchez, Treasurer of Aragon, Spain, and a Columbus patron, he writes: “As soon as they are safe…they are very simple and honest and exceedingly liberal with all they have; none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it.”
And in his log, Columbus wrote: “…should your majesties command it, all the inhabitants could be taken to Castile or made slaves on the island. With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want…”
Is this the proper role model for us to hold up to our children?
The person most responsible for bringing about the revolution in the Columbus curriculum is Bill Bigelow who taught for decades at Jefferson High School in Portland, Ore.
Bigelow points out that when we say Columbus “discovered” America we are using that word incorrectly.
How do you “discover” land on which people have lived for years before your arrival? Bigelow’s students come up with words far more accurate such as “conquered,” “invaded” and “stole.” Bigelow points out that we should not revere an explorer who wiped out an entire race in 40 years.
He asks his fellow teachers to put the following questions to their students.
- Are your textbooks factually accurate? Is anything omitted?
- What motives does the text ascribe to Columbus? Were these his real motives?
- Does the textbook author get you to “root for” Columbus?
How does he do this?
- Are history books written from the perspective of the “winners”? Had Hitler won World War II or if the Czars had defeated the Communists in Russia, what would we be taught in our schools?
- Are there groups in our society with a vested interest in honoring Columbus? What groups oppose this and why?
It wasn’t until 1937 that Columbus Day was made a national holiday.
Since then there has been an avalanche of cities, states and universities which have replaced it with something called “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
The four states which celebrate the new holiday are Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon and South Dakota.
In 1992, the first city to drop Columbus Day was Berkeley, Calif. In 2015, 17 cities followed suit; in 2016, 18 more and in 2017, 25.
One last thought on how to avoid the inevitable controversy which arises whenever the subject of Columbus comes up.
If Italian-Americans are entitled to a day marking their contribution to America (the Irish have St. Patrick’s Day) could we not find a more suitable representative?
I would like my Italian-American friends to think about Leonardo daVinci, one of the greatest geniuses who ever lived.
He was a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, mathematician, engineer, inventor, geologist, cartographer and botanist.
Or you might fancy Enrico Fermi, the physicist who created the world’s first nuclear reactor and who in 1938 won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Then, there’s my favorite, Fiorello Laguardia, whose life was dedicated to public service, but who may be disqualified on grounds that his mother was Jewish.
It should be noted that in no case have any of the three candidates I have suggested been accused of genocide.
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
Dr. Sobel,
Thank you so much for revealing the source of all that garbage of misinformation that has disseminated throughout the country. It is important to know why folks today are enduring such anger, unrest and community-laced deprecations when you talk about this topic:
“The person most responsible for bringing about the revolution in the Columbus curriculum is Bill Bigelow”
History is not facts to judge things with- they are collected perspectives that attempt to explain the facts of a past event, that’s all. But faithfulness to those facts within the text is what’s important- hence the reason it is repeated ad-nauseum that minding its context is so important!
Examples:
-regarding the ‘cutting the hands’ (‘Historia de las Indias’, De las Casas, Tomo II, p. 104-spanish): https://archive.org/stream/historiaindias02casarich#page/104/mode/2up
I TRANSLATE: “Then the Admiral recognized that most of the Indians -in truth- could not comply with [the tribute], so he agreed to cut the hawksbell collection in half; some of them did this, and others still could not, and thus, falling into a sad life they escaped to the mountains, others not forgetting the injustices of the Christians killed them for special damages and torments they had received …”
What was also left out of your source text is that the tribute took place as a result of the ‘War of the Holy Mount’ (Santo Cerro)- 220 colonists had to battle a 1,200-plus Taíno incursion because of the civilian killings that were inflicted upon unarmed colonists after the La Natividad incident. The Taínos that were left behind as the rest escaped were the ones captured with tribute rights (it’s what was done in the XV century).
-regarding the pictures:
Those etchings come from a book called ‘Mirror of the Cruel and Horrible Spanish Tyranny Perpetrated in the Netherlands, by the Tyrant, the Duke of Alba, and Other Commanders of King Philip II’, published 126 years after the above incident: https://www.wdl.org/en/item/515/
The purpose of that book was to promulgate the ‘Black Legend’ using De las Casas’ writings as the basis of the text- much like the text that you are quoting from that makes the narrative nefarious for a reason.
-regarding population:
(Esteban Mira-Caballos, ‘El Indio Antillano’-spanish) https://bit.ly/2AJJBY0
In 1492, the estimate population of Hispaniola was actually 100,000, based on described chiefdom density and records about tribute gathering. De las Casas estimated 300,000- but he included the other islands in that estimate. Between 1496-97 (the Columbus years) the population dwindled 25% to 75,000. That’s why if you start with the De las Casas’ numbers and subtract the Columbus years you get a 50% drop. Anyhow, any other numbers above the De las Casas’ estimate are an exaggeration that doesn’t regard the descriptions given by De las Casas and others of the island on goings. Smallpox and swine flu pandemics were already ravaging the island since early 1493, Columbus mentions this on a letter that mentions the second voyage.
-The slavery comment:
He did write that. The actual context was in reference to whether or not he was going to build a fort in Hispaniola before building the city, but nevertheless he did make a veiled suggestion to the crown to see how they would respond.
Columbus was not a perfect person; these corrections are not meant to defend him. But the historical narrative DOES need to be defended because as it is presented today is skewed by the sources you have mentioned. If the figure of Columbus was so bestial, why did De las Casas even bother to write this: (‘Historia de las Indias’, De las Casas, Tomo I, p.49-spanish): https://archive.org/stream/historiaindias01casarich#page/48/mode/2up
I TRANSLATE: “Of all these said things, the greatest expertise, practice, experience, study and diligence of things seafaring that Christopher Columbus had … so we believe that [he] exceeded all of those that lived in his time at the art of navigating, without a doubt, because God granted him completely these gifts more than any other, and because none more than him in the world he would have chosen for his most sovereign work besides the presence of his divine Providence in our world.” [The ellipses I placed did not cut out any context.]
De las Casas praised Columbus because he felt the encounter of the two worlds was the most magnanimous event in history, a most divine event- and Columbus was tapped to accomplish it, carrying on that divinity. But he also criticized severely the events that transpired after that encounter.
And one last comment: The only thing that can stand as correct from your sources is that America is indeed using the word “discovered” incorrectly. As per Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, the first definition for the word discover (without the use of sneer quotes) is:
DISCOVER (verb) dis·cov·er \dis-ˈkə-vər\: to make known or visible; expose.
Like the opening of the curtain before a show, this was the context implied in the XV century writings of the European expeditions. It obviously narrates of the population of the Indigenous that lived in America and some still are – otherwise, you would have no idea about them today.