Word: columbus
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Much of the information on Columbus' brutality was recorded by Bartoleme de las Cases, a Spanish priest who witnessed the conquest firsthand. He wrote that the Spanish "thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades." He recorded a story of two Spaniards who met two Arawak boys carrying parrots; the parrots were seized and the boys were beheaded "for fun." He also wrote: "[O]ur work was to exasperate, ravaage, kill, mangle and destroy...[Columbus] was so anxious to please the King that he committed irreparable...
...Hispaniola alone, war and slavery had killed 200,000 Arawaks, or 80 percent of the original population, by conservative estimates. Eventually, all of the natives were wiped out. Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison has written that the "cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide...
Every time we observe Columbus Day, we pay homage to this genocidal madman. Fortunately, his bloody, forgotten legacy has begun to surface lately. In 1992, protests drastically muted the celebrations of the 500 year anniversary of his arrival in the Caribbean. Such protests are often jeered as "political correctness." But the historical record flatly contradicts this knee-jerk response. Certainly Columbus is not a hero because of his genocidal policies. And when you understand the extent of his barbarism, it is hard to view him as a hero in spite of his crimes. Such a flippant trivialization of mass murder...
...Columbus Day may not be erased from our calenders anytime soon. But perhaps we should reflect on some of his forgotten victims this Monday. A good source for more information is A People's History of the United States, written by Howard Zinn, which provided the basis for this synopsis of Columbus' cruelty. Las Casas' History of the Indies provides a primary account. If we are to be educated citizens, we cannot passively accept the whitewashed myths of our society...
...Harvard Debating Championships, held on Columbus Day weekend for the past 16 years, have attracted more than 300 debaters from colleges around the nation this year...