Do you observe Columbus Day on October 12 at your school? Some schools, cities, and even states have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We’d say that you still need to study Columbus in your American history lessons, even if you don’t observe Columbus Day. Whether you consider Christopher Columbus a hero or a villain or something in between, he was still a significant figure in the story of our nation.
Who was Christopher Columbus?
Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451, the son of a wool merchant. He became a sailor in his teens, but the ship he was on was attacked by pirates. Columbus managed to get to Portugal, where he studied math and science and geography.
At that time, Europeans were very interested in Asia. They wanted to explore and also to get access to the silk and spices and other rich goods found in Asia. Reaching Asia by land from Western Europe was very difficult. Columbus thought he might have a new way to get there.
He decided that the world was smaller than other people thought. There is a story that he was the first to realize that the world was round, but this is not the case. He just thought it was smaller, so he thought that it might be possible to reach Asia by sailing to the west instead of going around Africa, as was usually done at that time. He was able to persuade the king and queen of Spain to finance his voyages, and he traveled from Spain to the Americas in 1492, 1493, 1498 and 1502.
On his first trip, when “In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” he stopped in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Haiti. He left about 40 of his crew behind in Haiti and was heading back there on his second voyage. Although he had not found a faster route to Asia, the Spanish royalty were impressed with his explorations and willing to give him 10% of what he found.
Columbus reached Puerto Rico on November 19th, 1493, according to scholars. This was his only stop in land now owned by the United States, and he still did not know what he had found. He called the islands he visited “the West Indies.” He was searching for gold, but he also captured the people who were already living in the places he visited and sent them back to Spain to be sold as slaves. He also enslaved people in the places he went and forced them to search for gold.
The Tainos in Puerto Rico and Haiti were friendly and helpful to Columbus and his men at first, but over time the Spaniards and the Tainos become enemies. While Columbus was back in Europe preparing for his second voyage, the Taino killed the Spaniards whom he had left in Haiti. Columbus also encountered the warlike Carib people, and he described them as cannibals. Terrible violence took place and Columbus’s own men complained about him to the King and Queen of Spain. Most of the Tainos died, either in their native lands or on the ships taking them as slaves to Spain. The Spanish colonists rebelled against Columbus and his family.
Columbus was sent back to Spain for trial in 1500. He died rich but disgraced in 1506.
Elementary school lesson
Ask students to create a KWL cart showing what they know about Columbus and what they wonder about him. Leave the learn section to fill out after the lesson. Add the dates of Columbus’s life to your classroom timeline.
Read Encounter by Jane Yolen. This picture book tells the story of Columbus from the point of view of a Taino boy.
Reading:
Read the book aloud. Connect the events in the book with the historical events, adding them to the timeline. Take time to examine the illustrations.
Discussion
After reading the book, discuss the story with these questions:
- What was Matías’s life like before Columbus arrived?
- How did Columbus and his crew view the Taino people?
- How did the Taino people view Columbus and his crew?
- What were the consequences of Columbus’s arrival for the Taino people?
Discuss the idea of historical fiction. Notice that Yolen tells how the people felt. Ask students how she knows their feelings. Discuss whether students agree that the story tells how the Europeans and the Taino felt. How would they have felt in the same situation?
Response:
- Divide the class into two groups.
- Assign one group to represent the Taino people and the other group to represent the European explorers.
- Ask each group to create a visual representation of their perspective on Columbus’s arrival, using markers or crayons on large sheets of paper.
- Encourage students to consider the cultural differences, values, and experiences of each group.
Sharing and Reflection:
- Have each group share their visual representations with the class.
- Discuss the different perspectives and the impact of historical events on both the Taino people and the European explorers.
- Encourage students to think about the importance of understanding history from multiple perspectives.
Secondary school lesson
Reading:
Read Columbus’s diary. There are some selections online:
Rethinking Columbus also has excerpts with discussion questions.
Read sections together as a class or divide the work among groups of students. Ask them to notice how Columbus sees himself, the King and Queen, and the Taino people.
Discussion:
Ask students if they have ever heard anyone talk about other people. Do different people ver tell the story differently? Does the story ever change over time? Review the idea of point of view. Tell students you will divide them into groups according to their point of view of the story of Columbus’s arrival in the New World.
Response:
Divide the class into these groups:
- Columbus and his men when they first arrive
- The Taino when the Europeans first arrive
- Columbus when he heads back to Spain in triumph
- Columbus’s men when they are left in Haiti with the Taino
- The Taino when Columbus returns
- Columbus when he returns to Spain for his trial
Ask each group to prepare a brief scene to act out for the class sharing the feelings they have from their point of view. Ask students to try to use quotes from Columbus’s journal in their scenes.
Sharing and reflection:
Ask students how they, as people living more than 500 years after the events they’ve just been studying, see the encounter between the Europeans and the Taino. Point out that at one time people saw Columbus and the other European explorers as brave and daring men who had discovered a new world. Today many people see them as despoilers who destroyed the cultures they encountered. Is that how they would have seen themselves?
Encourage students to think about the importance of understanding history from multiple perspectives. Notice the facts and the opinions you’ve uncovered and make sure students can tell the difference.
