Sunday, October 7, 2007

A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT VERSION OF GOOD OL' CHRIS COLUMBUS

Happy Monday off work. . . better known as Columbus Day. I am actually writing this on Sunday night because I am off tomorrow and plan on spending the day packing for our move this coming Saturday.

One of my teachers brought in a very interesting article written by an anthropologist that he found on Columbus to share with our students this past Thursday. What do you remember about Columbus from your elementary school days? 1492? Something about sailing an ocean blue? Wasn't there something about a Nina?

This article really provides an eye-opening account of a very non-romanticized version of Christopher Columbus. Among other things, it details how Columbus didn't actually get all the money necessary for his voyage from the monarchy in Spain. . . .it seems he actually became a slave trader of Indians in order to finance his journey. It also asserts that he and his men hunted the Indians, among other savage acts, simply for sport.

It makes for interesting reading and is only a few pages long. You can find it online at: http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/columbus.html.


3 comments:

papadale said...

Ask your hubby what he remembers about Christopher Columbus, just be careful though, there was a time, he didn't take well to teasing.

papadale said...

Come to think of it, maybe our Chris had some uncanny insight into the life of the real C. Columbus, maybe that's why he hated that nick-nack name

Anonymous said...

This was one of the first lessons I learned from, "Lies My Teacher Told Me." Columbus was no saint.