Abolish Columbus Day

301 Words2 Pages
To begin, Columbus Day should not be a holiday due to the role he played in the fiendish treatment towards the Indigenous People of the New World. Before Columbus had ever set foot in the Americas, many footsteps had been there before him, such as John Cabot, the Vikings. He was not the first man to explore, but he was indeed the first to exploit this “New World” to Spaniards, French, British, and Dutch. However, even if Columbus was the first to bring publicity to the wonders of the New World, he was also the first to integrate cruelty towards one specific race. In Jack Weatherford's Examining the Reputation of Christopher Columbus, Weatherford dutifully describes how “Columbus tore children from their parents, husbands from their wives” (Weatherford