Christopher Columbus Good Or Bad

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Logan McCleskey Mr. Nuemeyer 9/6/13 Period 3 Columbus: Villain or Hero? In his article, Robert C. Newberry declared that Columbus was a murderer and that any celebrations for him are an affront to all indigenous people of North and South America. The article claims that celebrating Columbus and his actions is unfair to Indians today and that the truth needs to be told about Columbus instead of celebrating a lie. Newberry criticizes Columbus based on the work of Howard Zinn and others. According to Zinn in the 15 years after 1492 over 3 million people died due to war, slavery and labor. Zinn says that every Indian who was over 14 years old was required to meet a quota of gold every 3 months and was punished by losing their hands if…show more content…
Indians did die on the Island of Hispaniola due to war, slavery, and labor but most of these deaths cannot be directly attributed to Christopher Columbus. The article states that 3 million Indians died although this number could not be verified using other sources. The article makes Columbus out as a man who had no concern for the lives of these Indians. The accusations of torture and murder cannot be verified. The claims in the article make it seem that Columbus only cared about his riches. Columbus may have committed bad acts but he also had a vision to discover the new world and the willingness to work hard to get it done. Many famous people may have also done bad things. The fact that they did some bad things does not change the good things they did that they deserve to get credit for. If this article was the only source on Columbus’ actions in Hispaniola, this might be a widely believed truth. Fortunately this article is not the only source. Other sources can supply many deferring opinions and examples of why Christopher Columbus is either a good guy, or bad guy. Christopher Columbus deserves all the praise he receives. Without him there would be no U.S.A. In 1492, slavery was still an accepted practice in many parts of the world. It is possible that Columbus was a jerk but he discovered the single most important thing on earth, doesn’t that deserve a little
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