Columbus shouldn't be considered a hero.

I find that Columbus is often blamed for the slave trade, however,he did in fact, not create the slave trade. Slave trading was a big part of life in the Ute Native American tribes,says Colorado historian Virginia McConnell Simmons in her book "The Ute Indians of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. " Slavery already existed in Central America, at the time of Columbus' arrival, Cortez was able to provide descriptions of what he found in the Mexico City of the Aztecs. Even where what is now known as the "West Indies," tribes practiced slavery and cannibalism. Therefore, Columbus was mistakenly blamed. source: . http://www.denverpost.com... There also is an misconception that Native Americans were harmless. Actually, here are whole bunches of misconceptions, and my source proves each and every one wrong. My source says: ""Columbus inaugurated an era of slavery. " No, he didn't. Slavery was common throughout the world at that time. " "Columbus and the Europeans took away land that belonged to the Indians. " The Native Americans never stayed in any one place to develop and own any land. They were constantly roaming all over the country. " "The Indians were just peaceful people. " While there were some exceptions, most Native American tribes were killing and slaughtering each other years before the white man came. They pretty much lived in a constant state of war. " "Columbus himself took personal leadership in acts that would today be called genocide. " We cannot judge people in history by the standards that we have at present. Just as we cannot criticize the Native Americans for failing to understand that there were no spirits that lived in human hair (which is why they scalped people), we cannot criticize the Europeans for failing to understand individual rights. The concept of individual rights did not exist at that period in history. Nonetheless, it is true that gruesome incidents took place and cannot be condoned, but this was no different from how Europeans treated other Europeans, nor from the way Native Americans treated other Native Americans at that point in time. " "The Indians lived in harmony with the earth. " Multiculturalists would have us believe that the Native Americans were always happy and carefree, tiptoeing through the forest and throwing tulip petals along the way. The truth is that because, at that time, they did not understand science and natural law, it was very difficult for them to survive. They suffered through famine, disease, drought, floods, and malnutrition. They weren't as happy as we are led to believe -- they often felt afraid and helpless. Besides, running herds of buffalo off cliffs only to use a few of them and leaving the rest to rot is not "living in harmony with the earth. " " "Columbus and the Europeans are to blame for introducing diseases such as smallpox which killed many Indians. " Using that same line of reasoning, perhaps we should blame the Native Americans for introducing the Europeans to tobacco because people have died of lung cancer. Thank you, Charlotte crushman(he wrote this source) source: . http://www.americanthinker.com... Therefore, with these arguments, I have successfully rid all the reasons why Columbus was bad. Next round, I`ll continue on and argue that he is good.