Mike’s Annotated Bibliography

  1.  Payne, Frank Owen and Virginia University of. The Personal Appearance of Christopher Columbus. Generic NL Freebook Publisher, 1996. 

Note: “Of all the great men who have played a momentous part in the history of the modern world, there is probably none of whom so much has been written and said, but of whom so little is positively known, as the discoverer of America. We have a considerable collection of the letters and the writings of Christopher Columbus.  He was known to many of the statesmen and historians of his day, who put on record some interesting incidents of his life.  A whole library of books has been produced by later investigators.  And yet we do not know where or when he was born; there is uncertainty…”

Abstract: The name, Christopher Columbus, has so much significance, but how much do people really know about Columbus? There is actually quite a lot of uncertainty to his name. We even do not know where he was born, there are multiple reports of him being born in different places.

  1. Brooks, Elbridge S. and Virginia University of. The True Story of Christopher Columbus, Called the Great Admiral. Generic NL Freebook Publisher, 1998. 

Note: “The days grew into months, the months to years, and still the war against the Moors kept on; and still Columbus waited for the chance that did not come. People grew to know him as “the crazy explorer” as they met him in the streets or on the church steps of Seville or Cordova, and even ragged little boys of the town, sharp-eyed and shrill voiced as all such ragged little urchins are, would run after this big man with the streaming white hair and the tattered cloak, calling him names or tapping their brown little foreheads with their dirty fingers to show that even they knew that he was ‘as crazy as a loon’.”

Abstract: People on the streets started to call him the crazy explorer and some even identified him as crazy as a loon. As he would walk the streets, the children would run from his streaming white hair.

  1. Handwerk, Brian. “Why Christopher Columbus Was The Perfect Icon For A New Nation Looking For A Hero.” Smithsonian, 2017, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-christopher-columbus-was-perfect-icon-new-nation-looking-hero-180956887/?no-ist.

Note: “Native Americans called these shores home for perhaps 15,000 years before Columbus arrived. Norsemen reached North America centuries before Columbus, and even his contemporaries may have reached the new world first according to this intriguing map. In any event, Columbus never even set foot on the North American mainland, as John Cabot did in 1497.”

Abstract: John Cabot was the one to actually reach the mainland in 1947. The Native Americans were there for at least 15,000 years before Columbus arrived on the shores. So, does Christopher Columbus deserve the title of discoverer of the Americas?

  1. “Columbus Reports On His First Voyage, 1493 | The Gilder Lehrman Institute Of American History.” Gilderlehrman.Org, 2017, https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/exploration/resources/columbus-reports-his-first-voyage-1493.

Note: “For nearly five months, Columbus explored the Caribbean, particularly the islands of Juana (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), before returning to Spain. He left thirty-nine men to build a settlement called La Navidad in present-day Haiti. He also kidnapped several Native Americans (between ten and twenty-five) to take back to Spain—only eight survived. Columbus brought back small amounts of gold as well as native birds and plants to show the richness of the continent he believed to be Asia.”

Abstract: Columbus kidnapped several Native Americans and tried to bring them back to Europe. Only eight of them survived out of the group. He also took some of their natural resources.

  1. “Columbus Controversy – Exploration – HISTORY.Com.” HISTORY.Com, 2017, http://www.history.com/topics/exploration/columbus-controversy.

Note: “In an era in which the international slave trade was starting to grow, Columbus and his men enslaved many native inhabitants of the West Indies and subjected them to extreme violence and brutality. On his famous first voyage in 1492, Columbus landed on an unknown Caribbean island after an arduous three-month journey. On his first day in the New World, he ordered six of the natives to be seized, writing in his journal that he believed they would be good servants. Throughout his years in the New World, Columbus enacted policies of forced labor in which natives were put to work for the sake of profits. Later, Columbus sent thousands of peaceful Taino “Indians” from the island of Hispaniola to Spain to be sold. Many died en route. Those left behind were forced to search for gold in mines and on plantations. Within 60 years after Columbus landed, only a few hundred of what may have been 250,000 Taino were left on their island.”

Abstract: Columbus took in many slaves and seized the land. His men enslaved many natives and subjected them to extreme violence and brutality. Columbus actually ended up taking them back to Spain to be sold but many ended up dying.

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