Why We Shouldn’t Celebrate Columbus Day
By Maximos Politis
While it is true that Christopher Columbus discovered America, he was also known for being a rapist, murderer, slave owner, and tyrant. Some people think that Columbus Day should be celebrated and others do not. Columbus kidnapped people and enslaved them and was a rapist. Christopher Columbus was a rapist and a murderer. 56 years after Columbus’s first voyage, only 500 out of 300,000 Indians remained on Hispaniola. Half of the people that died on Hispaniola died from mass suicide. Indian slaves were beheaded when their spanish captors couldn’t be bothered to untie them. “exhausted Indian carriers, chained by the neck, whose heads the Spaniards severed from their bodies so they might
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Columbus kidnapped a carib woman and gave her to a crew member to rape. “I was filled with a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire.” A member of Columbus's crew publicly cut off an Indian's ears to shock into submission. Columbus forced Indians to collect gold for him or else die. Columbus ordered every Indian over 14 to give a large quantity of gold to the Spanish. Overall, Columbus was a bad person and bad ruler.
Christopher Columbus was a slave owner. Columbus kidnapped and enslaved more than 1000 people on Hispaniola. About 50,000 indians commited mass suicide rather than comply with the Spainish. The Indians destroyed their stores of bread so that neither they nor the invaders would be able to eat it. They plunged off cliffs, they poisoned themselves with roots,and they starved themselves to death. Settlers under Columbus sold 9-10 year old girls into sexual slavery. In the end, Columbus was a slave owner and did many bad things.
Some people will claim that we will still celebrate Columbus day. Some will claim Columbus discovered America and if he didn’t then America wouldn’t be the same as today. Columbus also discovered that the earth was round and not flat. Also 60% of America's food was discovered by him. Columbus did some good things but it did not make up for what he did, and he still killed many people, was a tyrant, and he was a slave