"In 1492 ..." and Christopher Columbus -- Lies My Teacher Taught Me

In 1492

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.

Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.

October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!

“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.

But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.

The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.

Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.

The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright

– Author Unknown, www.scholastic.com

This was the most popular Columbus Day poem/song lyric in the United States when I was growing up as a Baby Boomer in Scioto County, Ohio, U.S.A. It was used to help teachers impart the history of Christopher Columbus, the heroic founder of the country, and to celebrate Columbus Day – a U.S. holiday that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas in 1492.

We accepted the spoon-fed wisdom from our teachers (who were also likely the unwitting victims of their own public school education) with celebratory American pomp and circumstance, putting Columbus on legendary status without objection. A good man was he.

However …

Revisionists now point to the realistic harm Columbus inflicted to the indigenous peoples of the day and question any reason at all to honor Columbus’ achievements. Applying the mores of the 21st century to Christopher Columbus (Italian – “Cristoforo Colombo”, 1451– 1506) reveals a man whose infamous deeds seem to outweigh any accomplishments of his early global navigation.

“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths

about one’s heroic ancestors.”

– James Baldwin

That Columbus was a slave trader is now historical fact – historians even recognize that he had been sailing under a Portuguese flag engaged in African slave trade a dozen year before 1492.

By the time Columbus had reached the new world, he had begun to envision large settlements where the Spanish would supervise Indian laborers. He wrote that the Indians were "fit to be ordered about and made to work, to sow and do everything else that may be needed . . . all that they are ordered to do they will do without opposition."

(George E. Tinker and Mark Freeland. “Thief, Slave Trader, Murderer: Christopher Columbus and Caribbean Population Decline.” Wicazo Sa Review. Volume 23, Number 1, Spring 2008)

Columbus is commonly recognized as an Italian admiral who enslaved many native American people and treated them with unmerciful violence and brutality.

Columbus lived in an era in which the international slave trade was starting to grow. As part of his voyages, Columbus and his men enslaved many native inhabitants of the West Indies and subjected them to extreme, harsh treatment. On his famous first voyage in 1492, Columbus landed on an unknown Caribbean island after an arduous three-month journey.

History.com attests to this voyage and the subsequent actions of the leader …

“On his first day in the New World, he ordered six of the natives to be seized, writing in his journal that he believed they would be good servants. Throughout his years in the New World, Columbus enacted policies of forced labor in which natives were put to work for the sake of profits. Later, Columbus sent thousands of peaceful Taino “Indians” from the island of Hispaniola to Spain to be sold. Many died en route.

“Those left behind were forced to search for gold in mines and work on plantations. Within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island.”

As governor and viceroy of the Indies, Columbus imposed strict discipline on what is now the Caribbean country of Dominican Republic, according to documents discovered by Spanish historians in 2005. In response to native unrest and revolt, Columbus ordered a brutal crackdown in which many natives were killed; in an attempt to deter further rebellion, Columbus ordered their dismembered bodies to be paraded through the streets.

(Editors. “Why Columbus Day Courts Controversy.” history.com. October 7, 2019.)

Francisco de Bobadilla, who ruled as governor from 1500 until his death in a storm in 1502, reported …

“Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. Testimony recorded in the report stated that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartolomeo on "defending the family" when the latter ordered a woman paraded naked through the streets and then had her tongue cut out for suggesting that Columbus was of lowly birth.”

Giles Tremlett. "Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean.”

The Guardian. August 7, 2006.)

The natives of the islands were systematically subjugated via the “encomienda” system implemented by Columbus. Adapted to the New World from Spain, the system rewarded conquerors and resembled the feudal system in Medieval Europe, as it was based on a lord offering "protection" to a class of non-Christian people who owed labor. In addition, Spanish colonists under Columbus' rule began to buy and sell natives as slaves, including children.

(Timothy J. Yeager. "Encomienda or Slavery? The Spanish Crown's Choice of Labor Organization in Sixteenth-Century Spanish America.”

The Journal of Economic History. 55 (4). 1995.)

When natives on Hispaniola began fighting back against their oppressors in 1495, Columbus's men captured 1,500 Arawak men, women, and children in a single raid. The strongest were transported to Spain to be sold as slaves; 40 percent of the 500 shipped died en route.

Historian James W. Loewen asserts that "Columbus not only sent the first slaves across the Atlantic, he probably sent more slaves – about five thousand – than any other individual."

(James W. Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me. 1995.)

The law of tribute that he instituted in the island he called Española sometime in 1495 forced Indian people on the island to surrender goods, including gold ore. This robbery reinforces Columbus' greed.

In October 1499, Columbus – suffering from arthritis and ophthalmia – sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Spain to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern. By this time, accusations of tyranny and incompetence on the part of Columbus had also reached the Court.

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand responded by removing Columbus from power and replacing him with Francisco de Bobadilla, a member of the Order of Calatrava. Bobadilla. Bobadilla had also been tasked by the Court with investigating the accusations of brutality made against Columbus.

(Alicia Lee. “Why Christopher Columbus wasn't the hero we learned about in school.”

CNN. June 12, 2020.)

Some historians still claim it is silly to make Columbus the scapegoat for all the ills of the last five centuries or to suppose that the abrasive interface between the new and old worlds would have never happened without him. So, what is the proper view of this once-revered explorer and discoverer?

“We have to face the unpleasant as well as the affirmative side of the human story, including our own story as a nation, our own stories of our peoples. We have got to have the ugly facts in order to protect us from the official view of reality.”

– Bill Moyers

Perhaps, Christopher Columbus should not be hailed as a hero or damned as a villain. I guess that middle ground might reflect a needed shift in these changing times and in revisionist history. There is evidence in 2020 that the percentage of Americans who reject traditional beliefs about Columbus is small and is divided between those who simply acknowledge the priority of Indians as the "First Americans" and those who go further to view Columbus as a villain. The minority rights revolution has played a significant part in the minds of modern Americans, and it surely will continue to do so.

“When you’re publishing a book, if there’s something that is controversial, it’s better to take it out.”

– Holt, Rinehart and Winston Textbook Representative

Textbooks and history teachers? Traditional history textbooks offer students no practice in applying their understanding of the past to present concerns, hence no basis for thinking rationally about anything in the future. Reality gets lost. Authors stray further and further from the primary sources, and textbooks rarely present the various sides of historical controversies and almost never reveal to students the evidence on which each side bases its position.

James Green (1944 – 2016), American historian, author, and Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, explains …

“The textbooks are unscholarly in other ways. Of the eighteen I studied, only the two oldest, published back in the 1970s, contain any footnotes. Ten textbooks even deny students a bibliography. Despite heavy criticisms by scholars, new editions of the old texts come out year after year, largely unchanged. Year after year, clones appear, allegedly by new authors but with nearly identical covers, titles, and contents. What explains such appalling uniformity?”

(James Green, “Everyone His/Her Own Historian?” Radical Historians Newsletter 80, reviewing and quoting Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, The Presence of the Past. New York:

Columbia University Press, 1998).

As a result of all this, most students by the time they become high school seniors are hamstrung in their efforts to analyze controversial issues in our society. They enter college with a bland, vanilla-at-best sense of American history. This lack of understanding in a democracy where a historian’s duty should be to tell the truth, a democracy where students need to develop informed reasons to criticize as well as take pride in their country.

“Lying to children is a slippery slope. Once we have started sliding down it, how and when do we stop? Who decides when to lie? Which lies to tell? To what age group? As soon as we loosen the anchor of fact, of historical evidence, our history textboat is free to blow here and there, pointing first in one direction, then in another.

“If we obscure or omit facts because they make Columbus look bad, why not omit those that make the United States look bad? Or the Mormon Church? Or the state of Mississippi? This is the politicization of history. How do we decide what to teach in an American history course once authors have decided not to value the truth? If our history courses aren’t based on fact anyway, why not tell one story to whites, another to blacks? Isn’t Scott, Foresman already doing something like that when it puts out a 'Lone Star' edition of Land of Promise, tailoring the facts of history to suit (white) Texans?”

(James W. Loewen. Lies My Teacher Told Me. 1995.)

And, this date is 2020, twenty-five years after the advice from James Loewen. There is a most grievous reality to this discussion – most of what Americans believe about Columbus’ discovery (at least old folks like me) is filled with trite inaccuracies that have continued to dominate history courses and revile the most learned of history teachers for centuries. Isn't it time for the truth? How can we perpetuate lies that misshape and distort not only history but also the minds of American citizens?