“In fourteen hundred ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue …” Who in my generation of baby boomers does not remember learning that little ditty in grade school? We were told that Christopher Columbus was a brave explorer searching for a trade route to the East by sailing west. 

He made several trips but it wasn’t until his third trip that he realized he had not reached the East, but had discovered a previously unknown continent. We learned that, even though he did not reach the East, as he thought he would, he inspired an era of exploration and daring discovery. But today his image has been tainted by stories of oppression and cruelty toward the natives that were found where he landed at what is now known as Hispaniola.