Introduction to Book 1, Columbus and the Holy Cross
In the introduction to “The Great Divide: Why the Civil War Never Ended”, I explained that this historical exploration would encompass 385 years from the 1st voyage of Columbus in 1492 to the end of reconstruction in the South in 1877. Since this is a vast period of time, this project will consist of several books, the first of which is entitled, “Columbus and the Holy Cross”.
This first book will begin with historical records that shatter the deeply ingrained myths of Western history: the myth of the Virgin Wilderness, the myth of the Savage Indians, the myth of Christian Salvation, etc. Our journey begins here because we must go back to the start of the European invasion if we are to truly understand the roots of genocide and slavery—the two intertwining forces that will shape the future of the Americas.
The phrase, “history is written by the victors,” is often attributed to Winston Churchill, but whoever first uttered those words was indeed insightful. History is written by the conquerors and in the Western world, historians have long exaggerated the triumphs and minimized the horrors behind the “grand march of civilization”. For example, as the renowned historian, Howard Zinn wrote, “If you look through high school textbooks and elementary school textbooks in American history, you will find Andrew Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people – not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians.” (Zinn 2003)
You could argue that since Zinn made that observation, Andrew Jackson’s image has been challenged. The Treasury Department announced in 2016 that Jackson will soon be booted to the back of the $20 bill and replaced by Harriet Tubman on the front. Also, statues honoring Confederate leaders and soldiers have been toppled throughout the South. So progress has been made in the long, tortuous journey toward racial equality, but for every step forward, it seems we take two steps back—from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. Okay, much more than two steps back, hard to measure with a President who is a blatant racist, misogynist, and pathological liar.
Witness the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in 2017 organized by white supremacists and neo-Nazis to protest the planned removal of Robert E. Lee’s monument. Remember the torchlight parade and chants of “blood and soil”, which culminated in a Dodge Challenger ramming into a crowd of peaceful protestors, captured in photos of flying bodies and resulting in 35 injuries, many severe, and the death of Heather Heyer. And President Trump’s comment that there “were very fine people on both sides.”
The United States has never been more polarized than it is during the Trump years. Racism flourishes, violence erupts like a recurring series of volcanoes, while we do next to nothing to protect our children from mass murders in our public schools.
Which brings me back to the main point. History is weaponized by the conquerors. “A lie repeated often enough becomes the truth,” said Vladimir Lenin or possibly Joseph Goebbels (an attribution that is itself a probable lie). This is certainly a maxim warmly embraced by Donald Trump.
Many generations ago, historians created the myth that Christopher Columbus discovered a New World that was sparsely populated by naked savages, godless heathens destined by the Almighty to succumb to the superior race. These myths are ingrained in the fabric of our culture. Although challenged by some, these illusions stubbornly persist and even grow more virulent in these dark times. As I write this brief introduction, our nation stands at the precipice of a constitutional crisis. Perhaps we will pull back from the brink and save democracy from violent death. Perhaps not, for America has long revealed its fascist tendencies. But even if democracy survives this current assault, will our future Presidents serve the people or the oligarchy? And will we ever reach the Promised Land foreseen by Martin Luther King Jr.? “I have a dream that my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
We should no longer be content to live with the historical lies that have been forced upon us. It is finally time to burn those illusions to the ground. And in that spirit, let’s explore the “New World” and discover what Columbus really brought to its shores.
