Christopher Columbus was the first man who thought that the earth was round.
So Spain believed him and funded his voyage west. This all happened in 1492. Many people think Columbus is a hero; but in reality he is a villain. Christopher Columbus is a villain because he brought diseases to Hispaniola, and took Taino as slaves.
To begin, Christopher Columbus is a villain because he killed a lot of people. To demonstrate, on document #3, Zinn says “By the year 1515 there were
50,000 Indians left. By 1550 there were 500” (Zinn,#3). This shows that before
Columbus came there were lots of Indians. But after he left, there were only 500 people.
He is a killer. He killed the Taino because they didn’t want to be slaves. He also killed people without a token. Slaves got a token to put over their necks if they brought their monthly amount of gold to their masters. For example, on document #2, Lindsay says “If a Indian was caught without a token, the Spanish would cut off their hands and let them bleed to death” (Lindsay,#2). Any Indians without a token bled to death. By letting them bleed to death, Columbus killed them very harshly and in a lot of pain. Columbus was a murderer for killing so many Taino.
In
addition,
Christopher
Columbus is a villain because he took Taino people as slaves. Columbus went from country to another to get more slaves. For instance, on document #3, Zinn says “ They went from island to island in the Caribbean , taking indians captives” (Zinn,#3). They took every single Taino they could as slaves back to spain. There is more evidence to support this reason as said by Stannard. In the Holocaust a lot of people died, and in
Hispaniola a lot of people died too. For example, on document #5, it says “Call it
American Holocaust” (Stannard, #5). They are both alike because the Holocaust was when Hitler killed Jews for just being themselves, and when Columbus killed basically the whole population of Taino people.
Although some people argue that Columbus discovered America, he brought diseases there. she is saying that people think that Columbus is not a hero because there were already people living there before Columbus. To demonstrate, on document #4, Carroll says “Many are telling us that what Columbus did is not an event that should be honored­that it was