9 reasons why Christopher Columbus was a

murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel

Why do we even celebrate Columbus Day?

It's somewhat old hat at this point to point out that Christopher Columbus — in whose name
children are off school and mail isn't delivered on Columbus Day — was a homicidal tyrant who
initiated the two greatest crimes in the history of the Western Hemisphere, the Atlantic slave trade,
and the American Indian genocide. Here are just a handful of specific cases, mostly culled from
Laurence Bergreen's recent biography, Columbus: The Four Voyages, of almost unimaginable cruelty
inflicted by Columbus and his crew during their time in the Caribbean.

1) Columbus kidnapped a Carib woman and gave her to a crew member to rape

Bergreen quotes Michele de Cuneo, who participated in Columbus's second expedition to the
Americas (page 143):

“While I was in the boat, I captured a very beautiful woman, whom the Lord Admiral [Columbus]
gave to me. When I had taken her to my cabin she was naked — as was their custom. I was filled with
a desire to take my pleasure with her and attempted to satisfy my desire. She was unwilling, and so
treated me with her nails that I wished I had never begun. I then took a piece of rope and whipped
her soundly, and she let forth such incredible screams that you would not have believed your ears.
Eventually we came to such terms, I assure you, that you would have thought she had been brought
up in a school for whores.”

2) On Hispaniola, a member of Columbus's crew publicly cut off an Indian's ears to shock others into
submission

In the early years of Columbus’ conquests, there were also butcher shops throughout the Caribbean
where Indian bodies were sold as dog food. Live babies were also fed to war dogs as sport,
sometimes in front of horrified parents.

3) Columbus kidnapped and enslaved more than a thousand people on Hispaniola

According to Cuneo, Columbus ordered 1,500 men and women seized, letting 400 go and
condemning 500 to be sent to Spain, and another 600 to be enslaved by Spanish men remaining on
the island. About 200 of the 500 sent to Spain died on the voyage, and were thrown by the Spanish
into the Atlantic. (Bergreen, 196-197)

4) Columbus forced Indians to collect gold for him or else die

Columbus ordered every Indian over 14 to give a large quantity of gold to the Spanish. Those in
regions without much gold were allowed to give cotton instead. Participants in this system were
given a "stamped copper or brass token to wear around their necks in what became a symbol of
intolerable shame." Those who did not fulfill their obligation had their hands cut off, which were tied
around their necks while they bled to death—some 10,000 died handless.
5) About 50,000 Indians committed mass suicide rather than comply with the Spanish

Bergreen explains, page 204:

The Indians destroyed their stores of bread so that neither they nor the invaders would be able to
eat it. They plunged off cliffs, they poisoned themselves, and they starved themselves to death.
Oppressed by the impossible requirement to deliver gold, the Indians were no longer able to tend
their fields, or care for their sick, children, and elderly. They had given up and committed mass
suicide to avoid being killed or captured by Christians, and to avoid sharing their land with them,
their fields, beaches, forests, and women: the future of their people. “Some mothers even drowned
their babies from sheer desperation. In this way, husbands died in the mines, wives died at work,
and children died from lack of milk …and in a short time this land which was so great, so powerful
and fertile, was depopulated. My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I
tremble as I write…” a Dominican priest wrote of his first-hand account in “History of the Indies”.

6) 56 years after Columbus's first voyage, only 500 out of 300,000 Indians remained on Hispaniola

Population figures from 500 years ago are necessarily imprecise, but Bergreen estimates that there
were about 300,000 inhabitants of Hispaniola in 1492. Between 1494 and 1496, 100,000 died, half
due to mass suicide. In 1508, the population was down to 60,000. By 1548, it was estimated to be
only 500. Understandably, some natives fled to the mountains to avoid the Spanish troops, only to
have dogs set upon them by Columbus's men. (Bergreen, 205)

7) Columbus was also horrible to the Spanish under his rule

In comparison to his crimes against Caribs and Taino Indians, Columbus's rule over Spanish settlers
was also brutal. He ordered at least a dozen Spaniards "to be whipped in public, tied by the neck, and
bound together by the feet" for trading gold for food to avoid starvation. He ordered a woman's
tongue cut out for having "spoken ill of his brothers." Another woman was "stripped and placed on
the back of a donkey … to be whipped" as punishment for falsely claiming to be pregnant. He
"ordered Spaniards to be hanged for stealing bread" (Bergreen, 315-316).

8) Settlers under Columbus sold 9- and 10-year-old girls into sexual slavery

This one he admitted himself in a letter to Doña Juana de la Torre, a friend of the Spanish queen:
"There are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten are now in
demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid."

That Columbus brought slavery, torture, and rape to every part of the “New World” he touched is
incontrovertible. His own words, and those of contemporary observers, provide overwhelming
evidence of his depredations. Those who wish to commemorate Columbus as a fearless explorer
must face up to his extensive, well-documented, and gruesome dark side.

Happy Columbus day!