Columbus Day
Christopher Columbus is known as the man who discovered the New World. In the 1400’s, he made several trips from Spain to what he thought was India in order to find a more direct passage there for trade. In actuality, he landed in the Bahamas in North America, quite far from where he intended to be. Columbus is held to a high esteem in American history. Children sing songs about his voyages and are taught about the wonderful man who discovered America. There is even a day dedicated to him: Columbus Day, on the second Monday of every October. However, this idea about Columbus is a false one, and there should not be a whole day dedicated to him.
First of all, Christopher Columbus did not actually discover America, nor did he think that he discovered America. At the time, he thought he had found a new passage to India, and he died thinking he had been in India. In addition, while he is widely credited with this accomplishment, he was far from the first one to land on this continent. Centuries beforehand, the Vikings landed in America, and even longer before that, the Native Americans settled there. The celebration of Columbus Day completely ignores the fact that an entire civilization had already been living in the Americas for thousands of years before Columbus was even born. The celebration of Columbus as the man who discovered America completely erases the history of all those who were in the Americas before him.
In addition, Columbus’ arrival in the Americas proved to be terrible to the millions of people already there. When Columbus arrived in the Americas, he brought with him diseases that were not yet introduced to the native population, diseases that were a cause of death for an exorbitant number of Native Americans. It is true that Columbus likely couldn’t have predicted this outcome and can’t be held responsible for this, but he can be held responsible for raping, pillaging, taking land from and enslaving the Native American populations. Columbus taking land from Native Americans, and the subsequent colonists taking land from the Native Americans, resulted in many of them being pushed onto reservations, and many Native Americans still live on those reservations today. In addition, the enslavement of the Native Americans was an atrocious act. Everyone can agree that slavery was a terrible part of American history, so why is the person responsible for much of that slavery experienced still celebrated? In fact, as a result of the murder and enslavement of native populations, many Native American cultures unfortunately no longer exist. The person responsible for this should not be celebrated.
Many people have proposed alternative holidays to Columbus Day. One popular one is Indigenous People’s Day. This holiday would celebrate the cultures of both the Native Americans today and in the past and acknowledge the wrongdoings of Christopher Columbus. In fact, many cities around the world already celebrate this as an alternative to Columbus Day. All in all, Columbus Day should no longer be a holiday.
