TO THE MEMORY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS WHOSE HIGH FAITH AND INDOMITABLE COURAGE GAVE TO MANKIND A NEW WORLDThat`s the inscription on the monument to Christopher Columbus in front of Union Station in DC. The monument, a really great sculpture group by Lorado Taft, was dedicated in 1912, by people who thought that discovering America,, in the face of great odds and great dangers, was a Good Thing.
BORN MCDXXXVI DIED MDIV
(1436—1504)
Now, of course, people are discovering that Columbus was white, and so it’s okay to hate him.
More @ V DARE
Well... he also captured Indians for slaves and raped kids... so.. regardless the colors, continued investigation is showing him and his party to be a collection of standard fair explorers exploiting a lessor culture.
ReplyDeleteI posted this over on Gun Free Zone.
I’m of the changing mindset that Columbus wasn’t all that school has taught us.
He absolutely wasn’t the first to discover the country.
There were Norse settlements in Canada over 1,000 years ago.
http://www.livescience.com/37189-new-viking-voyage-discovered.html
Was Columbus’ team the first to dock in Plymouth (because they needed beer)? Probably.
http://beersportsbabes.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/pilgrim-mayflower1.jpg
Unless you want to count the Mashpee, Wampanoag or Nauset Indian tribes…then definitely, not.
There are well documented discoveries of Norse land claim markers in MN, IL, MA, and NY, to name only a couple.
http://www.hurstwic.org/history/articles/society/text/other_artifacts.htm. Boston, Newport, Berkley…
Oh – trivia; Dighton Rock in Taunton.. I’ve drank some beers on top of it in my youth ��
Not to mention that more and more historical evidence is being found that shows the Spaniards were hardly benevolent explorers.
http://nativeamericanhistory.about.com/od/nativeconceptsandperspectives/a/Christopher-Columbus-S-Legacy-Uncensored.htm
“Under Columbus’s leadership, the Arawaks were forced under the encomienda system (a system of forced labor that sidestepped the word “slavery”) to mine for gold and produce cotton. When gold was not found, the irate Columbus oversaw the hunting of Indians for sport and dog food. Women and girls as young as nine or 10 were used as sex slaves for the Spanish. So many Indians died under the encomienda slave system that Indians from neighboring Caribbean islands were imported, and eventually from Africa. After Columbus’s first kidnapping of Indians, he is believed to have sent as many as 5,000 Indian slaves across the Atlantic, more than any other individual.”
Not looking like the happy go lucky, plucky, adventurer the history books turn him and his crews out to be. Least not the lessons I remember as I kid. The more we learn, the more we realize they were humans capitalizing on a lesser culture for their own benefit.
Thanks.
DeleteCouple of corrections
ReplyDeleteThis is what happens when drinking and posting.
Pilgrims != Columbus. I'm ~150 years off between people and places.
The Hurstwic article REFUTES claims of Norse landings in N.E. I skimmed it and it appeared to support the points I was trying to make.
:)
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