“In 1492, natives discovered Columbus lost at sea.”
That’s a quote from a T-shirt I acquired several years ago at a pow-wow at the fairgrounds in New Bern. I bought the shirt specifically for that quote.
Ever since I learned the truth in the eighth grade from then-history teacher David Rackley, the thought of Columbus Day being a holiday has irked me. Why does the American government perpetuate a lie through its holiday system which spills over into the schools?
This may come as a shock to some people, but Christopher Columbus did not discover America.
For one, there were already people at the places he “discovered.” So if people were already there, how could he discover it?
One may raise the point that he was the first European to traverse the Atlantic. Wrong again.
Leif Erikson would stake that claim, landing somewhere between Newfoundland and Cape Cod hundreds of years before Columbus was even born.
President Lyndon B. Johnson, in 1964, commemorated Erikson for being the first European to reach North America by declaring Oct. 9 as Leif Erikson Day, just before Columbus Day. So why don’t we just get European discovery week off?
I will give Columbus points for sticking to his belief that the world was round. That fact, we now know, is true. So, with that frame of mind, he set forth to find a new route to China. He thought he did. And we give a man who never knew he didn’t reach Asia such creedence?
Columbus never even reached mainland [North] America. Truth be told, his voyages landed him in the islands south of America, including Cuba and Jamaica and later to parts of Central America. Close, Chris, but no cigar…well…
History teachers: Please tell your students the truth, not lies. Disregard the falsehoods and half-truths found in the standard textbooks and teach what you really know.
3 Comments
August 11, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Awarding those that haven’t really done anything to deserve it is the American way. You must be a terrorist.
October 7, 2008 at 9:00 pm
[...] is written by the winners.” Our schools and government continue to perpetuate the lie the Christopher Colombus discovered America. History textbooks are filled with half-truths and [...]
October 8, 2008 at 6:32 pm
thanks for bringing this to light. one thing that i would like to add is an aspect about the world being round. columbus, at that time, was not alone in believing the world was round. MANY people in that time did believe it was round, it just was not a COMPLETELY accepted theory yet, but was damn close to it. many correct account would explain that the only people who believed it was flat were your superstitious uneducated. if you haven’t yet, read the book lies my teacher told me by james loewen. it helps explain a lot.