Happy Columbus Day! When I was a kid that actually meant something. Columbus was cool, not the villain he has been betrayed as in recent years. Christopher Columbus discovered America and was a great explorer. But now his reputation isn't so stellar and teachers are making sure students know about his "dark side".
A recent article about the upcoming Columbus Day school celebrations talked about what some teachers are doing to give their classes a more "fair" picture of the great explorer:
Jeffrey Kolowith's kindergarten students read a poem about Christopher Columbus, take a journey to the New World on three paper ships and place the explorer's picture on a timeline through history. "I also talk about the situation where he didn't even realize where he was," Kolowith said. "And we talked about how he was very, very mean, very bossy."
In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison."In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy," teacher Laurie Crawford said.
Sweet. So Columbus is bad and we are making sure our kids know. That really comes as no surprise since our Founding Fathers had their faults and have been labeled in harsh terms because of some of their beliefs and practices. As a historian, I find this new curriculum of judging people, such as Columbus, by our standards completely asinine. It makes no sense at all because these historical figures were products of the society in which they lived, not ours. Slavery was acceptable, native populations were seen as barbaric, and everyone was out to discover land. That was the way most of Europe thought at Columbus' time.
Some argue that Columbus didn't really discover America because he thought he had hit the West Indies instead. Well, duh. He didn't know there was a bug mass of land blocking his way and so thought he had reached his destination. Maps back then were a joke, being highly inaccurate. They did believe in sea monsters after all and that the world was flat. They didn't have all the technology that we do today so cut the man some slack.
Others argue that the natives were the first ones there and so they really discovered America. True, they were the first to inhabit the land, but Columbus is the one who came across them. Furthermore, the European world had no idea America was there, let alone the people, so that would make Columbus the first one to discover that this land and people did exist. And, to be honest and not politically correct, the side that has the more power and education is usually the one that gets the credit for discoveries.
People also say Columbus is wicked for bringing disease and death to the natives. Well, idiot, do you really think he knew about germs and what he was doing by bringing two worlds together? Have you any idea of the medical knowledge in that time period? Not the best. It's unfair to blame Columbus for introducing those germs into those indigenous societies because he didn't even know they existed. The only way we know that is through hindsight. Thanks to modern medicine we know about germs and how disease spreads and we can look back and see how native populations were affected by European diseases. But don't say Columbus came knowingly carrying plague and death with him. That's just stupid.
When it comes down to it, those who hold historical figures like Columbus up to our modern standards are hypocrites and no better then those they profess superiority to. If Columbus was bad for judging the natives by his European standards, are we not even worse off because we impose the same sentences on him based on our modern philosophies. We have the advantage of time and, therefore, an increase of knowledge. We know about disease, the shape and land in the world, and that all men are equal. Are we not just as pompous and imperialistic when we look down our noses at Columbus and call him wicked because he does not meet our standards?
Yeah for Columbus and his discovery of America. He forever changed history. He helped bring in an era of discovery and exploration that has made us who we are today. For that I am grateful and see him as hero.
3 comments:
Great insights, Sue. Criticizing a historical figure because he doesn't live up to our standards is silly. He had an entirely different worldview, and yet we criticize him for somehow not knowing what we know hundreds of years later.
I stumbled across your blog on a computer in a public location. The browser had been left open. I am intrigued by your perspective.
"As a historian, I find this new curriculum of judging people, such as Columbus, by our standards completely asinine. It makes no sense at all because these historical figures were products of the society in which they lived, not ours. Slavery was acceptable..."
So...How do you feel about, say, Genghis Khan? Adolf Hitler? Joseph Stalin? Unfortunate, uneducated victims of their times who simply didn't possess our current knowledge or values? Or villains who are hopefully burning in outer darkness?
I don’t question our founding forefathers’ genius in plagiarizing the words and political philosophies of John Locke, and boy...I sure am glad good ol' Chris Columbus found this country (and as you mention – the people in it – two discoveries for the price of one, eh?), and I really don't mean to be a negative Nelly about these great men, but… um. . . being alleged "Christians," and - in the case of the founding forefathers - men who professed the equality of all, wouldn't you say their "values" should have been...uhhmmm... a little bit more aligned with the values we have now, in terms of...say...not tearing individual human beings away from their families to be owned, brutalized, and treated as subhumans and barbarians, or...uh... murdered? I mean, I know Thomas Jefferson believed that blacks were more closely related to orangutans than they were to whites and all (see Thomas Jefferson's "Notes on the State of Virginia"), and I know Columbus had to send something back to Spain to compensate for the gold he didn’t find here (native Arawak Indians slaves), and I am all too aware that the Spaniards under Columbus’ authority needed someone to work their land (again, enslaved native Arawak Indians)...but despite my acceptance of these facts, I can't help but feel that you perhaps being a little harsh on those who acknowledge that these great men are not the fabled figures of 1950’s history textbooks. I know our forefathers were very talented in contradicting stolen words and philosophies they counted as their very own, and Columbus was very skilled in deceiving and enslaving the inhabitants of the land he “discovered,” but despite these formidable skills and talents, shouldn’t historians seek to develop a complete picture of history, and not just a rosy one? History is doomed to repeat itself when even “historians” delete, ignore, or excuse the tragic mistakes, mistreatments, and sins of those who’ve gone before.
But maybe I’m just silly.
Or some kind of politically correct tightwad.
Or, as you say in your blog, a hypocrite, for holding the great men of several hundred years ago to the standards of their own professed standards and values (life, liberty, pursuit of happiness/property, etc).
PS – If they could return from the grave, I wonder how many slaves would share your forgiving view of their masters, and the political leaders who allowed brutality, murder, and the destruction of families (one slave to this plantation, one of his children to another, another child to a third.. .) I don’t think it would make much of a difference to them if you explained that slave-owners back then had different values and simply weren’t as educated as we 2009ers are.
PPS – If the founding forefathers really were the Christians that conservatives so often claim and not the deists claimed by the left, shouldn’t their standards and their treatment of other humans have been based on the very same Bible so many of us use as our moral foundation now? Right was right and wrong was wrong even back 1776, and even further back in 1492 (or whatever the actual year of Columbus’ sojourn was); We modern folks don’t have a monopoly on goodness and decency. Jesus preached unconditional love for neighbors ‘bout 2000 years ago…Even said to love your enemies. Bible’s been around a long time. The eras in which our “great men” lived do not excuse their conduct.
PPPS – Your indignation towards those who call a spade a spade and slave-owner a slave-owner reveals that you are even more judgmental than they are, but over smaller things. To me, maintaining historically accurate concepts of our founding forefathers and Chris Columbus is less offensive than practicing, justifying, and allowing others to practice slavery. I guess that is where we differ.
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