Let’s set the stage with a neutral description of who Columbus was.

“Most scholars believe Columbus was born in 1451, to a family of wool weavers in Genoa.  After working in the wool trade, he went to sea and literally washed ashore in Portugal after an attack on his ship by the French.  He married, only to be quickly widowed and left with a young son.  First in Portugal, and then in Spain, Columbus tirelessly peddled his vision of a westward sail to Asia.  By the time he finally won support from Queen Isabel and King Ferdinand, the tall, ruddy Genoese was forty years old and his red hair had turned white.

This synopsis of Columbus’s life to 1492 fits an appealing American trope: the up-from-nothing striver, like log-cabin Abe or the millions of immigrants who crossed the Atlantic.  But Columbus would have been appalled to be cast in this mold.  Not only did he conceal his modest origins; he had a child by a peasant’s daughter but never married her, apparently because of her low status.  And one reason Columbus struggled to find a patron for his voyage was his excessive demand for noble titles and privileges, including ‘Admiral of the Ocean Sea’ and ‘Viceroy’ of the lands he found.” – L&S

When Columbus landed in 1492, he of course met the Arawaks for the first time, and as The Light and the Glory teaches, by titling their first chapter about Columbus ‘Christ-Bearer’, his intentions were good.

 ‘Columbus wanted to treat them kindly.’ – L&G

How do we know this?  To find out, we should look at what Columbus wrote in his log to see how he actually wanted to treat the people.

‘They would make fine servants…with 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.’ – Zinn

And if we look at a less opinionated text, we find:

“After just a few hours ashore, he wrote of islanders:  ‘They ought to make good and skilled servants.’  Two days later, having departed San Salvador with seven captives to bring to the king and queen, he added: ‘After they learn our language I shall return them, unless Your Highnesses order that the entire population be taken to Castile, or held captive here.  With 50 men you could subject everyone and make them do what you wished.’” –L&S

What about this implies Columbus wanted to treat the natives kindly?  Where does that idea come from and what happens if we let it persist?  What are the pitfalls of not challenging our history?  What do we risk by challenging what we’ve been told?

When Columbus finally reached Spain:

 “He told about the long journey across the Atlantic.  He described San Salvador and the kind natives…He introduced them to the Indians who had sailed back with him.’ – L&G

‘kind natives’, ‘sailed back’. Wording matters.  Did those Indians simply enjoy a leisurely sail back with him?

When Columbus went back to Spain, he brought Arawak Indians back as slaves:

“Of those five hundred, two hundred died en route.  The rest arrived alive in Spain and were put up for sale by the archdeacon of the town, who reported that, although the slaves were ‘naked as the day they were born,’ they showed ‘no more embarrassment than animals.’  Columbus later wrote: ‘Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.’” – Zinn

When people invoke God, question it!

 “Columbus threw open the lid.  Everyone’s eyes opened wide.  The chest was filled with gold!  There were masks and crowns of pure gold, and bright gold jewelry shone in the candlelight.  The chest even held gold nuggets.  Anyone who had doubted Columbus before did not doubt now.  He had made a great discovery – the Indies had gold!

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella stared at the contents of the oak chest.  They both stood and then fell to their knees, lifting their faces toward heaven.  In the throne room of Spain that night, everyone gave thanks to Almighty God.” – L&G

Everyone gave thanks to Almighty God for the gold.  But where did the gold come from?

 “They had no iron, but they wore tiny gold ornaments in their ears.  This was to have enormous consequences: it led Columbus to take some of them aboard ship as prisoners because he insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold.  He then sailed to what is now Cuba, then to Hispaniola…There, bits of visible gold in the rivers, and a gold mask presented to Columbus by a local Indian chief, led to wild visions of gold fields.” – Zinn

And when discussing Columbus and his search for gold, The Light and the Glory says:

“Columbus had to come up with some gold, so he made the Indians pay a tax in gold.”

Wording and even font choice matters.  Did Columbus have to?  Do we not have enough of an imagination to come up with other alternatives?  Is enslavement and violence always the only option?  Do we always have to?  Could he have quit and gone back to Spain?  Could he have told the truth about the land and people?  By siding with Columbus, trying to make his situation relatable and understandable, the authors do not view it with a critical eye.  So violence and oppression is treated as a necessity, and in a children’s book that shapes how they view America, that is a dangerous combination.

“Governor Columbus,” King Ferdinand began, “you must understand.  We are responsible to God for the welfare of our people.  And now these natives are our people.  This terrible treatment cannot continue.  You must govern the Indians as we would govern them.” -L&G

As anyone who knows anything about history knows, empires always have ways in which they govern their people shamefully.  And, by ‘discovering’ people, does that automatically makes them ‘their’ people?  Is that right or fair?

So how do Ferdinand and Isabella govern and treat their people?

They were responsible for the Spanish Inquisition, and in 1492 – the year Columbus landed in the New World – they expelled all the Jews from their land.

Or as Zinn sums it up:

“Spain was recently unified, one of the new modern nation-states, like France, England, and Portugal.  Its population, mostly poor peasants, worked for the nobility, who were 2 percent of the population and owned 95 percent of the land.  Spain had tied itself to the Catholic Church, expelled all the Jews, driven out the Moors.”

When we see an idyllic view of empire, especially when it assumes God is on its side, we should question it.

 

Part 1 – The First Thanksgiving and the Myth of America
Part 2 – The Myth of America – Columbus, Christ-Bearer
Part 3 – The Myth of America – Jamestown – The Wrong Story To Tell
Part 4 – Pilgrims – God’s Provision at the Expense of Other People
Part 5 – Myth of America – Biased History Lesson
Part 6 – The Mayflower Compact – for God and King and White America
Part 7 – The First Thanksgiving – for a Massacre
Part 8 – The First Thanksgiving – Fears, Power, and Privilege
Part 9 – Colonialism – A History Lesson with Skittles
Part 10 – Myth of the First Thanksgiving – Other Festivals and Thanksgiving
Part 11 – Myth of America – The Clash of Spiritualities
Part 12 – The First Thanksgiving – A Day of Mourning
Part 13 – Resources

Books/Resources

A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America(L&S)
The Light and the Glory for Children : Discovering God’s Plan for America from Christopher Columbus to George Washington(L&G)
A People’s History of the United States(Zinn)
Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science(for kids. An excellent book.)
Sugar: A Bittersweet History

 

This series is available as a 40 page pdf, giving an introductory look at settler colonialism as it relates to the founding of America.  Discusses Columbus, Jamestown, Pilgrims and Native Americans and includes 4 lessons to teach the topics to kids.
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