Odd Wisconsin Archive
Columbus in Wisconsin
Dateline: the Caribbean, October 1492. Columbus has been much romanticized over the years, as in this 1893 catalog art and in annual parades on innumerable main streets like this one. Communities all around the nation even named themselves after him to celebrate his role as a great leader and explorer. But, as this weekend’s demonstrations remind us, Columbus was also forerunner of a tidal wave of suffering for the Americans who were here when he arrived, and his career included cruelty and ineptitude on a massive scale. He was such an unsuccessful colonial administrator that he was sent home in chains and ended his life in obscurity.
Was Columbus a hero or a villain - - or both? The Wisconsin Historical Society has put much of the firsthand evidence about him on the Web so you can decide for yourself. Visit our American Journeys collection and make up your own mind about your own history.
:: Posted in Odd Lives on October 11, 2004
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