...The Columbus Day Controversy Christopher Columbus has been recognized and praise as a hero since his suppose discovery of America. In which, Christopher Columbus was granted a holiday named Columbus Day after his legacy. To which, Columbus Day is a holiday celebrated on the second monday of October and is celebrated for the sole purpose that his exploration to the “New World” led to the discovery of America. Although many people today still celebrate Columbus Day it has caused great controversy throughout the nation and therefore should be exiled since it is an occasion to be mourned, he is a bad remodel to the American citizenry, and Columbus was a compulsive liar. To begin with, a issue to consider when removing Columbus Day is the fact...
Words: 572 - Pages: 3
...A lot of great nations have rich history of their own, whether it is bad or it is good. The United States of America has great history and tradition, from the Revolutionary War to the occupation of Afghanistan. When people who write about history discuss that of the United States, they often consider how eminent this country is and the great deeds other people of that country have done. Historians who write about the history of America often write about how it has had a share of great heroes from Christopher Columbus, Woodrow Wilson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, etc.. Nevertheless, historians often seem to not remember to mention the real heroes of America like, for example, John Brown and the Native Americans. Much of the history that historians write about don't always show precision. Since many historians only write about one side of history, it only makes it worse by not revealing the factuality of history and creates an erroneous image of what really took place. Many of our nation's great leaders have been distinguished as individuals who have the best interest of the country and every action they take on behalf of the country befittingly. For instance, in the book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen, he writes, "Under [president] Wilson, the United States intervened in Latin America more often than at any other time in our history." (Loewen, 16). What reason did the United States have to start an intervention in countries that...
Words: 2024 - Pages: 9
...a holiday dedicated to one man: Christopher Columbus, a man perceived as a valiant hero credited for discovering America in 1492. Generations of Americans have passed down the belief that Columbus was an amazing explorer, but tend to overlook the horrific deeds that Columbus committed. Despite his monumental accomplishments, Columbus was a historical figure closer to Hitler than to Martin Luther King on the morality spectrum. Due to his use of slavery, treatment of Native American slaves, and the tricks he used to deceive others, Columbus was not a hero but rather a villain. To begin with, Christopher Columbus should be vilified for converting Native Americans...
Words: 1161 - Pages: 5
...What makes someone a hero? It is defined by the dictionary as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Did Christopher Columbus not utilize his courage and nobleness when traveling across the dangerous Atlantic Ocean? Christopher Columbus was a hero because he was courageous and unique, he created a bridge from the old to new world, and he provided his country with material riches. Without his exploration of North America, the world we live in today would be completely different. Columbus originally set out to find a shorter sea route to Asia. Although he did not reach his destination, that does not make him any less courageous. At the time there were no accurate maps and there was the...
Words: 504 - Pages: 3
...Christopher Columbus: Hero or Villain? I think that Columbus day should be renamed. By having a day named after Christopher Columbus, people think that that he is a great person and he discovered the country we live in today, but that is not true because Christopher Columbus is a selfish person and only explored for his own benefit. In my opinion Columbus is a villain and we should either rename the holiday or just demolish it all together. Columbus Day celebrates the landing of Columbus at the New World. The holiday first took place in 1792 for the 300th anniversary, but it became a federal holiday in 1937. People dress up in costumes and dance to Native American music all for a very selfish man. The first piece of proof that Christopher...
Words: 453 - Pages: 2
...Many people believed that Christopher Columbus was a very mean and cruel man, however, some of the attributes that he portrayed was very heroic. Christopher Columbus was a very strong willed man, he did however treat his people very badly. The only reason Christopher Columbus treated his people like that is because he wanted to have success, I’m sure that we all would do anything for the amount of success that Christopher Columbus got. As his soldier Columbus got his work done, and not just done but done to the best of his ability. As one of his most valued and important soldier, I would never call him a villain, above all he was a hero. He should be respected and thought very highly of. Christopher Columbus made sure that all of his...
Words: 389 - Pages: 2
...celebration of Christopher Columbus and his “discovery” of America, has been drilled into elementary students’ heads. As recently as this year, my 1st grader and kindergartner were told that Columbus was the first person to find the United States, and his story was somehow tied into a lesson about Thanksgiving. The reason I bring this up is to show that the myth of Christopher Columbus is still alive and well. Unfortunately, this also proves that many people in the United States don’t understand the true history of this country, or don’t care enough to learn about it. My opinion of Columbus Day is this; just because we’ve made a mistake in the past due to ignorance, doesn’t mean that we should continue to make the same mistake once we’ve learned of our transgressions....
Words: 665 - Pages: 3
...Indians and Columbus and his crew. The passages go on to talk about traditions of how when someone is soon to die their legacy or power is passed down to his brothers, then to his sisters, then to his children that Columbus learned as they began to build the Virginia colony. The passages tell us of the treatment and lifestyle of the people whether it was the Indians or even the Spanish. Yes, this class the passages paint this picture of how everything we learned about Columbus was not true and that they told us nothing but the positives of Columbus and how he deserves to be credited for the discovery. While just being in college it has changed by perspective of how to look at Columbus and if we really want to get down to it, he really wasn’t the first to discover the America’s because there were people already living here and him and his country came in and took over what really wasn’t theirs. And I believe that as students we should have been told the whole truth Christopher Columbus. Columbus’s motives were to treat the Indians like savage people and work them like dogs till they were done with one of his projects and then they would have a break then they would work again for forty straight days with no breaks and then repeat that for however long Columbus wanted or until the Indian or Indians would pass away. Though his biggest motive was to find the gold that was believed to be in the America’s and he believed that the Indians knew where it was at. Columbus was willing...
Words: 467 - Pages: 2
...thought on the national holiday known as Columbus Day, and why you think it should or should not be recognized? After the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, lives of the Native American people on the once-peaceful Turtle Island changed rapidly. According to Render, many scholars believe that the sharply decline in population of the Indians is the result of the unintentional spread of European diseases throughout the Americas (22). However, this theory is only true for some individual populations. Most of the Native Americans, who did not die from diseases, were in fact deliberately killed by the colonizing powers. To many people’s surprises, the person who was at the head of the whole enslavement process and genocide of the Native people is Christopher Columbus, who is respected as a hero of America. Columbus came to Turtle Island and was overwhelmed of the remarkably endowed nature on the island. Above all else, one thing that caught his eye and attention: Gold. It is at the point of fact that Christopher Columbus and his son, Fernando, contributed in opening a series of continuous European colonization and vast destruction of Indian communities. In order to fulfill his greed, Columbus captivated the inhabitants of turtle Island, and either forced them labor to death or killed them with the most brutal ways anyone can possibly think of. The Native Americans were treated not as human, but rather as animals and entertainments for the Columbus’ men. Today, almost everyone grows...
Words: 1330 - Pages: 6
...Everyone has heard it before: Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492, but is it factual? Columbus’s discovery of the new world led to victory and havoc, even though these two words appropriately describe Columbus’s expedition, they still oppose one another. In history and life, there are always two sides to a story, two different perspectives of the same story. Therefore, there are two perspectives of Columbus’s voyage, one told by the American Pageant and one told by Howard Zinn in A People’s History of the United States , both of which in retrospect are entirely different on the way they betray Christopher Columbus. Howard Zinn’s ideology of Columbus as a villain is contradictory in nature to the American Pageant’s view of Columbus as a hero....
Words: 1184 - Pages: 5
...In the article, ”In Defense of Columbus, the author, Mary Ann Castronovo Fusco discusses the legacy of Christopher Columbus. She demits that it was a mixed one; on the one hand, he was a brilliant navigator who led a diverse group of sailors in dangerous waters in search of a new trade route to India. However he also encountered people different than the Europeans and in raciest manner, regarded them as inferiors. Fusco admits that Columbus did not discover America due to the obvious fact that there were people there before his voyages began. He was considered a Renaissance man, who applied new ideas in navigation in his quest for discovery. However, despite his intelligence and courage, Fusco states, “1”. Even if Columbus and his men did not personally slaughter the Indians or spread disease, he started the trend which allowed other Europeans from Spain and elsewhere to victimize the Indians and deny them social justice. It is interesting that Fusco is more of reporter than an analyst or historians, but she bases her article on interviews with historians such as William G. Connell at Seton Hall University and several Native American leaders. The article tries to justify the mass extermination of American Indians by stating that even if Columbus was a racist imperialist, he was a product of his time. Yet, that reason is faulty; it could be used to justify the institutions of slavery of blacks because, despite their obvious greed, the slaveholders wanted to...
Words: 518 - Pages: 3
...What do you know about Christopher Columbus? Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, there is a much greater understanding of what Columbus actually did. History needs to be through different viewpoints or the true history of life isn’t told; learners can’t perish to one view on history. Nations and communities have different viewpoints for example. Nations view history as Columbus viewed it while communities view history as the oppressed viewed it. While the views are associated with two different history writing styles in the chapter that Zinn provides, different views are essential when it comes to learning history. National collective memory is associated massively to the leader’s perspective, for example Columbus’s viewpoint; communal collective memory is linked heavily to the oppressed perspective such as the experiences of the Arawaks. The first chapter titled Columbus, The Indians, and Human Progress Zinn analyzed the untold history of what Columbus actually did back in 1492. Zinn provides us two different types of history writing. One type is the history of Columbus in Columbus’s own point of view. This is the type that students briefly learned about in high school modern history courses and of historians. Some historians basically sympathize with Columbus’s perspective. He was a hero for finding new land and supposedly bringing gold back to the King and Queen. Many students didn’t know there were other viewpoints so they believed in that one view. Zinn...
Words: 859 - Pages: 4
...Odyssey Argumentative Essay As Christopher Columbus once said, "By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination." The journey, and how those obstacles and distractions are overcome, is what holds the valuable life lessons that help us reach the destination. Ultimately, it is not the overall goal, but the decisions we make and the turns we take during the journey that help shape and define who we are as people. In Homer's The Odyssey, the theme of the epic is about how war can change a person. It is evident that the journey is more important than the goal to the development of Odysseus's character and the theme of the epic when Odysseus learns the importance of humility, the value...
Words: 980 - Pages: 4
...Christopher Columbus is known as being a hero for discovering America. There is one problem he did not discover it, the Africans made it to the Americas well before Columbus. There is also another thing Columbus did that he does not take credit for, the slaughter of the Native American people. As soon as Columbus set foot on the land and saw the Native Americans he wanted to slaughter them, he eventually did so for filling his urge. As more and more settlers arrived they stole the land and continued to kill the Native Americans, now only a small fraction exist. Fast forwarding 400 years, sports teams started using Native Americans as mascots, supposedly to commemorate and remember the Native Americans. There are professional sports teams who...
Words: 1648 - Pages: 7
...them.” Washington Irving, a well-known short story author in the nineteenth century, spoke these words of wisdom. Washington Irving became famous in America for his fine works from The Specter Bridegroom to Rip Van Winkle to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. These satirical sketches are all based on the local areas in New York where Irving resided. His adventures through life spread the word of his writings and he became one of the first renowned short story writers in Europe. Washington Irving was born in New York, New York on April 3, 1783. His mother, Sarah, and father, William Irving, Sr., had eleven children including Washington. He was named after the United States first president, George Washington who was sought to be the greatest hero of all time to his parents. “… He attended the first presidential inauguration of his namesake in 1789” (Biography Channel). Irving was privately schooled and later went to study law in New York after his return from travelling Europe. In 1804 he travelled to France and Italy, while writing journals and letters. When he returned in 1805, Irving continued law school but did poorly for he barely passed the bar exam. (Biography Channel). After Irving finished his studies, he went on to write humorous essay with his older brother William Irving, Jr., and James Kirke Paulding. The Salamagundi papers published the essays in 1807 to 1808. Irving would often use pseudonyms or aliases such as Geoffry Crayon and Diedrich Knickerbocker. Irving...
Words: 2583 - Pages: 11
