Christopher Columbus may be the man who sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but when it comes to celebrating his national holiday, Eastern students and staff have different views.

History professor Martin Hardeman said people commonly understand Columbus to be the man who discovered the new world—the western hemisphere.

“(Columbus sailed) west across the Atlantic and (made) the initial discovery of the Americas, the western hemisphere, its islands and its people,” he said.

A common misconception is that Columbus discovered North America when he sailed west, Hardeman said. 

“(Columbus) didn’t discover North America; he discovered the islands in the Caribbean,” he said. “I think he wound up at one point in the mainland and Central America, but as far as I know he never went north of that.”

While his discoveries were remarkable, it all happened accidentally, Hardeman said.

“(Columbus) made two mistakes,” he said. “He underestimated the circumference of the world and he did not realize that there was something between Asia and Western Europe.”

History grad student Jonathan Williams said Columbus was actually searching for India when he discovered what lied in the western hemisphere.

“(Columbus) was trying to find India for trading,” he said. “Somehow he got lost and ended up … somewhere between Central and South America, I believe. That’s how Native Americans got the name ‘Indian,’ because he thought he was in India.”

Williams said Columbus was not a compassionate man on his voyages.

“(Columbus) was very rough on his crew. In fact, he murdered a lot of the people that he encountered in the new world,” he said. “(He) was very vicious.”

Kathryn Stewart, Hardeman’s reader and research assistant, said she learned information about Columbus’s brutality from American historian Howard Zinn’s book “A People’s History.”

“(Columbus) would stick swords in (natives) just to see (if) a sword will go through them just like it goes through white people,” she said. 

Columbus also enslaved a lot of the people he encountered in the new world, Hardeman said.

“(Columbus) carried off a number of natives from the islands he discovered to both convert them to Christianity and to use them as slaves,” he said.

Williams said he understands why some people do not like celebrating Columbus Day anymore and thinks it may no longer be a national holiday in the future.

“I can see Columbus day as a holiday that comes under attack in the new political culture in the country,” he said. “Especially (because) his achievement was a mistake and (because of) the things he did, I can see the holiday being removed sometime because he was a very brutal man.”

Dalton Davison, a senior computer information and technology major, said he thinks Columbus Day mostly serves as just another day off rather than a day for celebration.

“I don’t see a point in (Columbus Day),” he said. “It just gives an extra day of school off for high schoolers. We don’t even get it off, sadly.”

Sophomore psychology major Mackenzie Maslowski said she does not celebrate the holiday because she does not know enough about Columbus.

“I don’t celebrate (Columbus Day). I don’t really know how,” she said. “I didn’t go (into) depth with the history and (learn) every single thing about it, so I don’t feel like I should really celebrate it.”

Jessica French, a grad student majoring in music composition, said what Columbus did in the past does not make his holiday appealing to many people today.

“You don’t really leave a good impression when you rape and pillage people and steal their jewelry or their fine crafts, and just kind of get out. It leaves a sour taste in your mouth,” she said. “Some Americans would be like, ‘Oh, (Columbus) discovered America,’ but they don’t have all the facts and information. Even I don’t have all the information.”

Williams said it is important to understand what happens when the government gives someone a holiday, and maybe it is time to focus on creating holidays that are not about specific people. 

“When you have a debate to give someone a national holiday, you’re really opening up that person to a lot of scrutiny,” he said. “Why don’t we just celebrate cultures that we have in the United States? Celebrate the different heritages and cultures, and we kind of do that in a different way, but maybe (do it) on a (grander) scale.”

Logan Raschke can be reached at 581-2812 or at [email protected].