Lesson Plan--Historical Empathy: Columbus and the Indians
Christopher Columbus’s first voyage to the New World in 1492 brought him and his crew into contact with the indigenous peoples of the Americas. This voyage led to more expeditions on the part of Columbus and other Europeans, and because these expeditions led to violence and genocide inflicted on the indigenous peoples. Because of this, some modern interpretations cast Columbus in a negative light, even to the point of advocating for the replacing of Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Many people no longer consider Columbus the hero who “discovered” America. Historical empathy is a historical thinking skill that calls on students to understand why people in the past acted and thought in certain ways—particularly in ways that are hard for us to understand today because we are so opposed to them. It tries to look at people and events in the larger context of their time period to make sense of their motivations and causes.
