You’re right, we should judge Columbus based on the times he lived.
Bobadilla reported to Spain that Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery. He claimed that Columbus regularly used torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. Testimony recorded in the report stated that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartholomew on “defending the family” when the latter ordered a woman paraded naked through the streets and then had her tongue cut because she had “spoken ill of the admiral and his brothers”. The document also describes how Columbus put down native unrest and revolt: he first ordered a brutal suppression of the uprising in which many natives were killed, and then paraded their dismembered bodies through the streets in an attempt to discourage further rebellion…
In early October 1500, Columbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard La Gorda, the caravel on which Bobadilla had arrived at Santo Domingo. They were returned to Spain, and languished in jail for six weeks before King Ferdinand ordered their release.
I think the point is that even by the standards of his time, he was horrible. And that was an era where a common legal execution method was strapping you to a wagon wheel and beating you to death over the course of an hour. He was horrible compared even to that.
You’re right, we should judge Columbus based on the times he lived.
I didn’t say that we should judge him by the standards of his time. I did say that he did terrible things.
I think the point is that even by the standards of his time, he was horrible. And that was an era where a common legal execution method was strapping you to a wagon wheel and beating you to death over the course of an hour. He was horrible compared even to that.
I never made the argument that he wasn’t terrible