Why Columbus Day?
Most of us grew up hearing the story of Christopher Columbus. We learned about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria, the voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, and the explorer who supposedly discovered America. His name appeared in textbooks, his arrival was celebrated in classrooms, and an American holiday was established in his honor.
What we weren't often taught was that Columbus kidnapped Indigenous people, transported hundreds of captives to Spain to be sold into slavery, and presided over a colonial administration accused of horrific violence. His treatment of Spanish settlers became so severe that the Spanish monarchy sent an investigator to Hispaniola, where Columbus was arrested and eventually shipped back to Spain in chains.
These details aren't discoveries made by modern historians looking for reasons to criticize him. Many come from documents written during Columbus's lifetime, including his own journal, accounts from the men who traveled with him, and testimony collected by the Spanish government.
Knowing this history raises an uncomfortable question. Why do we continue to celebrate Christopher Columbus when so much of what he did was known, recorded, and condemned by people living in his own time?
What Columbus Thought of the People He Encountered
When Columbus reached the Caribbean in October 1492, he found islands inhabited by Indigenous peoples who had lived there for countless generations. Among them were the Taíno, whose communities maintained their own languages, systems of government, agricultural practices, and trading relationships.
Columbus described the people he encountered as generous and welcoming. They offered food, water, cotton, and other goods, exchanging them with the newcomers who had arrived on unfamiliar ships. His writings also reveal that he was interested in finding gold and assessing how easily the inhabitants could be brought under Spanish control.
On October 14, just two days after his first landfall, Columbus wrote about seven Indigenous people he had taken captive. He suggested that with only 50 men, the Spanish could subjugate the population and make them do whatever was demanded.
There was little ambiguity in those words. Columbus had barely begun exploring the Caribbean before he was considering how its inhabitants could be captured, controlled, and put to work. What began as an encounter between people from different parts of the world was already becoming something far more dangerous for those who lived there.
Gold, Slavery, and the People Sent to Spain
Columbus returned to the Caribbean in 1493, bringing a much larger expedition of settlers, soldiers, and supplies. The Spanish expected wealth from the lands he had claimed, particularly gold, and Columbus was under pressure to deliver it.
As the colony on Hispaniola grew, Indigenous communities faced increasing demands for gold and labor. Spanish soldiers carried out military campaigns, took captives, and imposed systems of tribute that disrupted daily life. Families were separated, communities were displaced, and people were forced to work under colonial authority.
In 1495, Columbus's forces captured large numbers of Indigenous people, with hundreds selected for transportation to Spain. Historical accounts commonly estimate that approximately 500 were shipped across the Atlantic to be sold into slavery. Around 200 reportedly died during the voyage, and many of those who survived arrived seriously ill.
Imagine the experience of those taken aboard the ships. They were carried away from their families and everything familiar to them, crossing an ocean toward a country whose language they did not speak and whose people regarded them as property.
Columbus was operating within a European world where slavery already existed, including in the Mediterranean and along the West African coast. He was familiar with those Atlantic trading networks before his first voyage. His expeditions extended the practice to Indigenous people from the Caribbean, bringing captives directly into European markets.
The Spanish crown later questioned the enslavement of some Indigenous captives. In 1500, Queen Isabella ordered certain people brought to Spain to be freed and returned. Yet Spain's colonial expansion continued, and the exploitation of Indigenous labor became deeply embedded in the colonies.
For the Taíno, the consequences were devastating. Warfare, forced labor, starvation, displacement, and diseases introduced through European contact contributed to enormous losses. Communities that had existed long before the Spanish arrived were subjected to pressures that threatened their survival.
The Violence Described by Columbus's Own Men
One of the most disturbing accounts of the second voyage comes from Michele de Cuneo, an Italian who accompanied Columbus in the Caribbean:
In a letter written in 1495, Cuneo described capturing an Indigenous woman whom Columbus gave to him. He explained that when she resisted his sexual advances, he beat her with a rope before sexually assaulting her.
What makes the account particularly troubling is how casually Cuneo described what he had done. He offered the story as part of his experiences overseas, showing little concern for the woman or what she had endured.
The woman was not named in his letter. Nothing was recorded about her family, where she was taken afterward, or whether she survived the years that followed. We know about her because the man who assaulted her chose to write about it.
Cuneo's account does not establish that Columbus personally committed this assault. It does, however, identify Columbus as the man who gave the captive woman to him, and it documents the treatment of an Indigenous woman by a member of his expedition.
Much of the surviving history of early colonization was written by the men who commanded ships, governed settlements, or sought wealth in the Americas. Indigenous people appear throughout those accounts, but rarely do we hear their own voices. Even when the records describe acts of violence, the people who suffered are often left unnamed.
Even the Spanish Settlers Complained About His Brutality
Columbus's reputation for harsh treatment was not limited to his dealings with Indigenous communities. Spanish settlers living under his authority on Hispaniola also complained about the way he and his brothers governed.
The colony struggled with food shortages, disease, disputes over gold, and growing resentment toward Columbus's administration. Settlers who had crossed the Atlantic expecting opportunity found themselves living under a government that witnesses later described as brutally punitive.
In 1500, the Spanish monarchy sent Francisco de Bobadilla to investigate. The inquiry gathered testimony from 22 witnesses, including men who had lived in the colony for years.
Their accounts described severe punishments for offenses that could be remarkably minor. Several men were reportedly flogged for trading gold to obtain food when they were hungry. Another man, accused of stealing wheat, was said to have received a sentence involving whipping, the removal of his nose and ears, and exile.
One witness reported that a woman had her tongue cut out after speaking against Columbus and his brothers. Other accounts described executions, public humiliation, and punishments carried out without the protections of a fair judicial process.
These were allegations recorded during an official investigation, and individual testimonies sometimes differed. They should be read with the care given to any historical inquiry. Still, the surviving records describe an administration that used severe physical punishment and had become deeply unpopular among many of the Spanish colonists.
Historian Consuelo Varela examined the investigation in her book La caída de Cristóbal Colón: El juicio de Bobadilla, published in 2006. Her work helped bring wider attention to testimony that complicates the familiar image of Columbus as an admired explorer and capable leader.
The accounts also show that complaints about Columbus's conduct weren't confined to later generations judging him by modern standards. People living under his government were reporting serious abuses while he was still in power.
Columbus Was Arrested and Returned to Spain in Chains
By the summer of 1500, the situation on Hispaniola had deteriorated to the point that the Spanish monarchy intervened. Bobadilla arrived with royal authority to investigate the colony and assume control of its government.
Columbus and his brothers were arrested, and Columbus was sent back to Spain in chains.
It is tempting to see this as evidence that the Spanish monarchy opposed the violence inflicted on Indigenous people. The circumstances were more complicated. The crown was concerned about the mistreatment of Spanish settlers, disorder in the colony, and the possibility of losing control over valuable overseas territories. Spain was itself sponsoring conquest and colonization, and its officials were not consistently opposed to Indigenous enslavement.
Nevertheless, Columbus had lost the confidence of the authorities who had sponsored his expeditions. The man who had crossed the Atlantic under royal patronage returned to Spain as a prisoner. He was eventually released and permitted to undertake a fourth voyage in 1502, but he never regained his governorship of Hispaniola.
Columbus died in 1506. Over the following centuries, the story most Americans would come to know focused far more on his accomplishments at sea than on the people enslaved during his expeditions or the accusations that ended his administration.
How Did Columbus Become an American Hero?
Columbus wasn't always the central figure in American history that later generations made him. After the American Revolution, the new United States was eager to establish an identity separate from Britain. Columbus offered a useful historical figure: a European explorer whose voyages could be connected to the beginning of European expansion into the Americas without celebrating Britain's own colonial history.
In 1792, New York marked the 300th anniversary of his first voyage. As the 19th century progressed, books, paintings, monuments, and public celebrations strengthened his reputation. The complicated history of the Caribbean colonies gradually gave way to a more appealing story about courage, exploration, and discovery.
Columbus also became a symbol of pride for Italian Americans, who faced discrimination and sometimes horrific violence in the United States. His Genoese origins offered immigrant communities a celebrated historical figure they could claim as their own. That aspect of Columbus Day has a history of its own, rooted in the experiences of people seeking acceptance and recognition in American society.
In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called for nationwide celebrations honoring the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival. Federal recognition of Columbus Day followed in 1934, and the holiday began being observed on the second Monday of October in 1971.
By then, generations of American children had grown up with an account of Columbus that emphasized the voyage and the explorer's determination. His treatment of Indigenous peoples, his participation in slavery, and the circumstances of his arrest rarely received the same attention. The familiar phrase about sailing the ocean blue was easy to remember. The lives of the people who were already here received far less space in the story.
Why Do We Continue to Celebrate Columbus Day?
There is no question that Columbus's voyages changed history. They helped begin an era of sustained European colonization that reshaped the Americas and brought profound changes to societies on both sides of the Atlantic. But being an important person in history does not necessarily mean being a person we should celebrate.
Columbus did not arrive in an empty land, and he was not the first person to reach the Americas. Indigenous peoples had been living here for thousands of years, and Norse voyagers had reached North America centuries before his arrival.
His voyages also cannot be separated from what he chose to do afterward. Capturing Indigenous people, transporting them to Spain, demanding gold and labor, and governing through severe punishments were actions taken during his own lifetime, not simply consequences of colonization that unfolded long after he was gone.
Some people continue to view Columbus Day as a celebration of exploration or Italian-American heritage, while others question why a national holiday should honor a man associated with enslavement and colonial violence. Understanding the history behind those views is worthwhile, but it shouldn't come at the expense of examining Columbus's conduct.
Children can learn about the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria while also learning about the Taíno communities that welcomed the newcomers. They can study the voyages while understanding why Columbus was removed from power. There is room for the complete history without turning its central figure into someone whose actions are beyond question.
A Different Meaning for October
Indigenous Peoples' Day offers an opportunity to turn our attention toward the people who lived in the Americas long before Columbus arrived, and toward their descendants who continue to maintain their cultures and communities today.
For the Taíno, whose ancestors experienced the earliest years of Spanish colonization, that history includes both devastating loss and continued cultural survival. Contemporary Taíno people are reclaiming and sustaining traditions, knowledge, and identities that were once widely described as having disappeared.
Throughout the Americas, Indigenous communities continue to speak their languages, create art, protect cultural traditions, share their histories, and contribute to the places they call home.
At the Museum of Indigenous People in Prescott, Arizona, these living connections are central to the museum's exhibitions, educational work, and community gatherings. The museum's Indigenous People's Day: Yesterday,
Today, & Tomorrow explores the meaning of the observance and the importance of recognizing Indigenous cultures as part of our shared present, not simply our distant past.
Columbus's story belongs in our history books, including the voyages he made and the terrible suffering that accompanied his efforts to establish Spanish rule. His actions should be studied and remembered because they help us understand the colonial history that followed.
As we reconsider Columbus Day, perhaps the question worth asking is not whether Columbus should be remembered. History has already ensured that he will be.
The question is why we chose to celebrate him, and what we want future generations to understand about the people who were here before he arrived.
Sources
Journal of Christopher Columbus, 1492 — The American Yawp Reader https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/making-an-atlantic-world/journal-of-christopher-columbus/
Slavery and Spanish Colonization — University of Houston, Digital History https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?psid=3569&smtID=2
Sex and Sexuality in Early America — Edited by Merril D. Smith, New York University Press. Includes discussion of Michele de Cuneo's account.https://www.perlego.com/book/720554/sex-and-sexuality-in-early-america-pdf
La caída de Cristóbal Colón: El juicio de Bobadilla — Consuelo Varela, 2006 https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wptvz
Bobadilla Investigation, 1500: Manuscript, Transcription, and Translation — First Blacks in the Americas https://firstblacks.org/spn/manuscripts/fb-primary-003-manuscript
Today in History: October 12 — Library of Congress https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/october-12/
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples' Day? How Oppression Shaped the Holiday — National Geographic https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/why-some-celebrate-indigenous-peoples-day-not-columbus-day
Unlearning Columbus Day Myths: Celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day — Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian https://americanindian.si.edu/nk360/informational/columbus-day-myths
