Making a Hero

Wave 1: A founder who wasn't British

In 1775, the American colonies went to war with Britain.

One early use of Columbus's name for America came from an unexpected place. Phillis Wheatley had been born in West Africa around 1753 and trafficked to Boston in 1761. [2] On October 26, 1775, she sent General George Washington a poem in his honor. It repeatedly calls America "Columbia." [1][2] Washington wrote back to her in February 1776. [2]

"Columbia" became a patriotic name for the new country, and the honors followed. [3]

In 1784, New York's King's College was renamed Columbia College, to show support for the new republic. [4]

In 1786, South Carolina chose a site for its new capital and named it Columbia. The name won a vote in the state senate, 11 to 7, over "Washington." [5]

In 1787, the poet Joel Barlow published a long poem called The Vision of Columbus. [6]

In 1791, the commissioners planning the new national capital named the federal territory around it the Territory of Columbia. [3]

In 1792, for the 300th anniversary of the first voyage, several American cities held celebrations. New York's was organized by the Columbian Order, the club that later grew into the Tammany Hall political machine. [7]

Wave 2: The storybook genius

In 1812, Ohio founded a new capital and named it Columbus. [8]

Then, in 1828, the popular writer Washington Irving published A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. It became the most popular English-language account of Columbus for more than a century. [9]

Irving's book helped spread a myth: that people in Columbus's time believed the earth was flat, and that Columbus proved them wrong. As Chapter 1 showed, educated Europeans already knew the earth was round. The experts who rejected Columbus were right about the distance. [9]

Wave 3: A badge of belonging

On March 29, 1882, a priest named Michael McGivney founded the Knights of Columbus at St. Mary's Church in New Haven, Connecticut, as a mutual benefit society for Catholic immigrants. The anchor in its emblem stands for Columbus and the Catholic contribution to America. [10]

In March 1891, after a jury in New Orleans acquitted six Italian immigrants charged with murdering the city's police chief, a mob broke into the jail and lynched 11 Italian Americans. [11] Italy's ambassador left Washington in protest. [12]

The next year was the 400th anniversary of the first voyage. On July 21, 1892, President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed a national celebration, the first presidential Columbus Day. It was meant to be a one-time event, and the lynching was a direct reason for it. [11][13]

For that celebration, schoolchildren across the country recited a new Pledge of Allegiance, credited to Francis Bellamy. [14] In New York, a statue of Columbus atop a tall granite column was unveiled at what became Columbus Circle. [11]

Beyond the United States

The name traveled south, too. In 1819, a congress in Angostura proclaimed a Republic of Colombia, today often called Gran Colombia. The name came from a term the revolutionary Francisco de Miranda had coined for the Americas, built from Columbus's name. [18]

What every wave left out

Look back at the poems, the colleges, the cities, the parades and the statues. Did any of them tell the story of Guacanagarí's rescue, or Anacaona, or the 23 witnesses of 1500?

The hero was built from what each generation needed. The record was left in the archives.