Why Should We Honor Christopher Columbus?

My VIP for this week is Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who made his voyage from Spain to the Caribbean because today (Monday) is a national holiday officially known as Columbus Day.

Melissa King stated that Columbus “opened the seaway to greater discovery and prosperity for the world.” In her opinion piece titled “Perspective: To understand Columbus, try reading even more about him,” King stated: “Portrayals of Columbus as a villain often rely on select moments taken out of context, while dismissing a great deal of other evidence, including his own stated intentions.” She shared the following ideas. 

Unfortunately, Columbus Day has become an occasion for denigrating him rather than acknowledging his extraordinary contributions. In recent years, crowds have defaced Columbus statues by spray-painting graffiti, beheading and toppling and burning them. The voices behind these acts are not subtle about their distaste and derision for him. For example, 2015, one Vox writer described him as a “murderer, tyrant, and a scoundrel.”

My own family experienced their antagonism, albeit indirectly. Once when I finished reading a storybook about Columbus to my children, my second-grader said, “Mom, Columbus is not a very good guy.” When I asked where that idea came from, I received a proud and cheerful response: “I learned it in kindergarten!”

This startled me. How have so many Americans come to see Columbus as a villain? And why is that viewpoint being taught in our schools?

King states that there is an antidote to the idea being taught in schools that Columbus is a villain.

She things that the antidote is “seeking to understand his actions, his motivations and who he really was.”

Bravery and faith

Bartolome de las Casas, a contemporary of Columbus who championed the cause of the native peoples of the Caribbean, wrote, “I think Christopher Columbus was the most outstanding sailor in the world, versed like no other in the art of navigation, for which divine Providence chose him to accomplish the most outstanding feat ever accomplished in the world until now.”

Columbus was a 15^th-century entrepreneur, not unlike Steve Jobs or Elon Musk in our day, and he changed the world as everyone then understood it. He was a diligent student of the maritime disciplines required to be a successful sea captain.

Columbus was also a devout man of faith and a fervent student of the Bible. He was patient and persistent, undaunted and courageous in the face of peril and uncertainty at sea. He embodied the American spirit: forward-looking optimism, willingness to confront a challenge with courage, and a desire to maximize his potential and better the world he lived in.

Columbus and slavery in the New World

Modern-day critics of Columbus claim that he brought nothing to the New World but enslavement and pestilence. Would it surprise you to learn that Columbus liked the natives he encountered, considered them intelligent and ordered his crew to treat them with respect?

In his book “America’s Destiny,” the late Tad Callister quotes Dr. Carol Delaney, a Stanford emeritus professor and leading Columbus scholar. Asked in an interview if she agreed with the “popular view today that Columbus is responsible for countless atrocities against the native peoples,” she responded, “No, not at all…. The more I read of his own writings and that of his contemporaries, my understanding of him totally changed.”

She continued, “His relations with the natives tended to be benign. He liked the natives and found them to be very intelligent. Christopher strictly told the crew not to do things like maraud (or) rape, and instead to treat the native people with respect. There are many examples in his writings where he gave instructions to this effect. Most of the time when injustices occurred, Columbus wasn’t even there.” …

During Columbus’s second expedition, in 1495, he was approached by a native chief who assisted the Spaniards on their maiden voyage. King Guacanagari asked Columbus for help and protection against a neighboring cannibal tribe that was killing and eating his people. According to his own record, Columbus intervened and captured about 500 cannibal attackers, who were sent back to Spain as slaves….

A more honest assessment would reference Columbus’s letter to the King and Queen of Spain, in which he expressed his hope that the slaves would be put under competent care and taught the Spanish language so they could learn Christianity, gain salvation and forsake cannibalism. Columbus also intended for them to be returned to their native land so they could instruct others in Christianity….

Seeing Columbus clearly

Columbus wasn’t a perfect human being, like most anyone else in history. But it’s easy to take particular incidents out of context and criticize them as inconsistent with contemporary sensibilities. A fair evaluation of Columbus’ own writings and those of his contemporaries reveal a man worthy of our admiration and respect – at least as worthy as most pro athletes, social media influencers, politicians or business tycoons today or in the past.

King’s counsel is to consider “the voyages, discoveries and writings of Columbus” as “historical treasure” from which we can all benefit. Therefore, we should not be “ashamed to say … Happy Columbus Day!”