No one can deny Columbus’ discovery of the New World had a long-term impact on the Indigenous People of North and South America. It was Columbus’s life-long mission to discover a shorter sea route to the Far East, not only for new trade, but, also, to find an unobstructed path to Jerusalem, then occupied by the Muslims.

Not only was Columbus an incredible navigator who brought his crew safely to an unknown world, he was a pious Christian devoted to spreading the word of God. It was never in this man’s heart to brutalize, rape, or, as some people have accused him of, creating purposeful genocide. Columbus was a noble man who was nothing like his portrayal as a villainous exploiter by Howard Zinn in “A People’s History of the United States.” This character assassination has unfortunately been repeated unwittingly by those who use just eight pages of Zinn’s book to teach the life and times of Columbus.