By: Jordan Barker
As
we are taught in history class, Christopher Columbus was the man who sailed
around the world in search for new land and to prove that the world was round.
We are told that he was the one who discovered America and we even have a
holiday for him, but are we getting told the whole truth? There’s a lot more to
Christopher Columbus than just that, that I believe most people would find
shocking.
Christopher
Columbus was known for his hospitality and his intelligence, at least, that’s
what was taught. Truthfully though, when he finally reached land and found
these native people, he enslaved them and forced them to work for him in his
gold mines. Within a year, 125,000 of the natives were dead, which was half the
population. [1]
I would be willing to bet that most kids are not taught that in school.
The thing is, it gets worse. Not only did
he enslave the men to work for him but also he took the women as slaves as well
so they could have sex with him and his men. The women that didn’t listen were
punished by getting their ears and noses cut off by his men. He then proceeded
to take over their territory in search for gold. When he didn’t find any, he
decided to take even more slaves back to the queen in Spain. The slaves were
treated terribly and most died. After all this, Columbus went back to the
native homes and conquered them killing and enslaving all the men and women he
could. The enslaved women he thought were pretty were given to his commanders
as sex slaves as a type of reward. [2]
So
after all this, we still celebrate a national holiday for this man. It’s kind
of crazy to think we celebrate someone who caused so much harm and death but
the people don’t know. Christopher Columbus’s true past is somewhat of a secret
that never gets told. I believe everyone should know what they are celebrating
and the things he did. No matter how good or bad, he is still apart of our
history so the people deserve to know the truth. Learning about secrets such as
this makes me wonder if there are any other important people that have bad past
such as Columbus’s. I believe kids should be taught in high school the truth
about everyone they learn about so America can be informed about the people
that shaped our country.
I
probably would have never learned this information if it wasn’t for our history
of sexuality class. I thought it was interesting to see how something so long
ago still tied into sexuality and the shaping of our sexual culture today.
[1] Kasum, Eric. Huffington Post, "Columbus Day? True
Legacy: Cruelty and Slavery." Last modified November 10, 2010. Accessed
April 27, 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-kasum/columbus-day-a-bad-idea_b_742708.html.
[2] The Oatmeal, "Christopher Columbus was awful(but this
other guy was not)." Accessed April 27, 2014.
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day.
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