Carissimi/e/*,

I am forwarding these useful information regarding Christopher Columbus by Robert Petrone. I believe it is important to read also positive facts about Columbus to have a full picture of the man. I did find these 12 facts really interesting because they go against the negative narrative of Columbus, provides with events the revisionists don't talk about, and they are accompanied with primary sources. I hope you will enjoy them as well and use them when you will discuss with a revisionist. Remember: please share our petition to your friends, family, and organization to save Columbus Day at Drexel University. Especially share this petition to Drexel alumni and if you are a Drexel alumni please contact us at italianpride@drexel.edu. We are so close to our goal of 1k signatures. So this is part of the email:

All experts on Christopher Columbus agree categorically that Christopher Columbus was not the evil person that Marxist Hans Koning and pseudo-historian Howard Zinn have falsely portrayed him to be  ad nauseam. Stanford University Professor Carol Delaney, who dedicated decades of her life traveling around the world studying the primary historical sources regarding Columbus, has also explicitly stated that Columbus never engaged in any such atrocities.

My years of research of the primary sources have revealed that, in fact,  Christopher Columbus was the first civil rights activist of the Americas.  The primary sources, cited below, indicate that not only did he not harm anyone, either personally or by endorsing the harming of any of the tribal peoples of the West Indies, he actively fought against such behavior by the Spanish nobles who sought to enslave and force labor upon the tribal peoples of the West Indies. Specifically, Christopher Columbus engaged in a list of at least twelve demonstrable deeds firmly establishing him as the greatest hero of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries and the Americas' first civil rights activist, including that he: 

1. consistently and persistently advocated for granting the indigenes of the West Indies full rights and protections as Spanish citizens (Letter of Christopher Columbus dated February 15, 1493, stating that the Crown should give the tribal peoples of the Indies "the love and service of their Highnesses and of the whole Spanish nation";  Historia de las Indias, Columbus's Journal entry of October 14, 1492, where he suggest they be made "subjects" of the Crown, which would grant them all the rights attendant thereto);

2. sailed the Caribbean on his Second Voyage rescuing Tainos from capture and enslavement by the flesh-eating Carib and Canib tribes, thus creating the first "underground railroad" in the Americas (Epistolary account of Columbus's 2nd Voyage by Dr. Diego Chanca; Columbus's Journal entries describing his 2nd Voyage, dated 1493 through 1496);

3. actively fought the violence of the imperialist expansion of the Crown of Spain, at times going as far as to interpose his body between the swords of conquistadors and resistant indigenes ( Historia de las Indias, Book I, Chapter 92, recounting Columbus's freeing of tribal people arrested and maimed by Alonso de Hojeda, saving their lives from Hojeda's bloodthirst);  

4. highly regarded the indigenous Tainos he found in the New World, characterizing them as “intelligent,” “trustworthy,” “beautiful” and the makings of “good Christians” (Columbus's letters to the Crown of Spain,  passim); 

5. promoted peace in accordance with the Commandments and the Scriptures he held in such reverence (See all entries in his diary recording his contact with the tribes, all of which were peaceful and friendly -- the entries are too numerous to list here, but are corroborated in Book I of  Historia de las Indias,  passim); 

6. intervened always as a pacifying force against the greedy and entitled Spanish nobles who defied his prohibitions against enslaving the tribal peoples, revolted against Columbus’s governance in response, and indulged in mutual hostilities with the tribal peoples against Columbus’s direct mandates for peace (Books I and II of  Historia de las Indias); 

7. maintained friendly, peaceful, mutually beneficial relations with the indigenes of the Americas, the overwhelming majority of whom who considered Columbus a good friend and a welcome newcomer (Book I of  Historia de las Indias; Columbus's journal entries recording first contact with various tribes during his 1st and 2nd Voyages);

8. provided testimony to the court of Spain resulting in the deposing of Francisco de Bobadilla, the real perpetrator of the atrocities in the West Indies ( Historia de las Indias, Book II, Chapter 3);

9. spent the entirety of his fourth voyage working to depose Bobadilla's successor, Nicolás Ovando, who continued Bobadilla’s atrocities in Columbus’s absence ( Historia de las Indias, Book II, Chapter 36, recounting how Governor Ovando prohibited Columbus from coming to Hispaniola, but Columbus came anyway to confront Ovando in his own court);

10. successfully petitioned the crown of Spain to enact the first civil rights legislation of the Americas, forever securing an impregnable decree from the highest authority protecting the indigenes from enslavement or any other mistreatment ( Historia de las Indias, Book II, Chapter 3);  

11. inspired Friar Bartolomé de las Casas, Protector of the Indians, to petition the crown of Spain (successfully) to fund the formation of an order of Dominican friars who stationed themselves in the West Indies and enforced the civil rights legislation that Columbus got passed, forcing the Spanish nobles to end their mistreatment and slavery of the indigenes once and for all ( Historia de las Indias, Book III, Chapters 130 through 139); and

12. initiated more than five hundred years of cultural, economic, and political relations between the Old World and the New, commencing a perpetual exchange of science, technology, law, commerce, art, music, literature, and people, benefiting and enriching the globe from pole to pole ( Historia de las Indias,  passim; Journals and log books of Columbus,  passim;  The Life of the Admiral by Hernando Colón,  passim).