That rhyme has long been how American students were introduced to Christopher Columbus in elementary school.
Students are taught that Columbus is the one who discovered the Americas, sailing across the Atlantic in his three ships: The NiƱa, Pinta and Santa Maria. The Italian explorer is even celebrated every October during a federal holiday named after him.
But the man credited for discovering the “New World” has long been considered a contentious figure in US history for his treatment of the indigenous communities he encountered and for his role in the violent colonization at their expense.
Dozens of cities and states — such as Minnesota, Alaska, Vermont and Oregon — have already replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day.
So what did Columbus really do and why is he being labeled as a “tyrant” rather than the hero we were taught to believe?
He wasn’t the first to discover the Americas
He enslaved the natives
During his voyages through the Caribbean islands and the Central and South American coasts, Columbus came upon indigenous people that he labeled “Indians.”
Throughout his years in the Americas, Columbus forced natives to work for the sake of profits. Later, he sent thousands of Taino “Indians” to Spain to be sold, and many of them died during the journey. The natives who weren’t sold into slavery were forced to look for gold in mines and work on plantations.
While he was governor of what is now the Dominican Republic, Columbus killed many natives in response to their revolt, according to History.com. To prevent further rebellion, he would have the dead bodies paraded through the streets.
He brought new diseases
The indigenous societies of the Americas “were decimated by exposure to Old World diseases, crumbling under the weight of epidemic,” Perry wrote in his CNN op-ed.
Some historians believe that the impact of European and African settlers in the New World possibly killed as much as 90% of the native populations and was deadlier than the Black Death was in medieval Europe, OMRF said.