Columbus Day is a day celebrating Christopher Columbus’ discoveries of the Americas

Columbus Day is a day celebrating Christopher Columbus’ discoveries of the Americas

Columbus Day is a day celebrating Christopher Columbus’ discoveries of the Americas, and the growth and development of the New World. It is typically celebrated on the second Monday of October in the United States. Christopher Columbus was able to expand the New World, Christianize many people, and bring new resources, but he also was responsible for the mass genocide of perhaps millions of Taino people. With any growth of an empire also comes the downsides, for this situation it came with genocide, rape, and disease, which is why Columbus Day should not be celebrated.
During the time of his expedition, Christopher Columbus sought to travel to India, but ended up in the Caribbean. Upon his arrival he searched for gold and land. In his own personal journal, it is stated that his only intent when travelling was to find gold. This proves that his mindset was never in the right place, and his original idea was never to befriend and make ties with the Taino. He claimed the land as his own but there were already people inhabited within it. Stealing is not discovering, he should not be rewarded for something that had been discovered and inhabited by others. Although you can consider him to be courageous to set on a journey no one else has, his ways of colonization were inhumane. In his letters, Columbus refers to the Taino as “trade” and not even as humans. He killed and slaughtered millions of people. As said in Bartolome de las Casas journal, it is said Christopher Columbus and his men forced their way into the native settlements and slaughtered everyone they found there. They tortured the people there, with the result that they howled in agony and despair as they died a lingering death. He believed that mass genocide and slavery were legitimate ways to produce gold and other resources.

Regardless of the fact that whoever discovered America likely would’ve brought disease and hate to the Native Americans, they, if not Columbus, should not be celebrated. Since we cannot cover up that part of our history, change it or pretend it doesn’t exist, it is easier to flower it up and make it look pretty enough to hide to despicable truth underneath. We should be teaching our children the truth about what happened, from both points of view, but stop this useless holiday.

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