Pro-Slavery Social Studies Textbook Approved in Louisiana

[morningstar2651]

This is in a history textbook for middle-schoolers used in Louisiana. I'm surprised they don't call it "the war of Northern aggression".

 

[HTacianas]

This is in a history textbook for middle-schoolers used in Louisiana. I'm surprised they don't call it "the war of Northern aggression".

Where in the textbook does it advocate in favor of slavery?

 

[Hammster]

 

[morningstar2651]

Where in the textbook does it advocate in favor of slavery?

I think it's pretty clear in the pages I shared.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

So what's particularly inaccurate on those pages?

 

[renniks]

I think it's pretty clear in the pages I shared.

It's history. How does simply stating what happened advocate for slavery?

 

[Landon Caeli]

This is in a history textbook for middle-schoolers used in Louisiana. I'm surprised they don't call it "the war of Northern aggression".

Oh, poppycock..

 

[Hans Blaster]

with Union forces near Vicksburg.

Sir,

I read of this outrage presented herewith. A Louisiana-focused text book that doesn't mention the most important general associated with the state. I would have not tolerated such when I was superintendent of the Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy at Pineville. I would send a punitive expedition back to East Carroll Parish to deal with these unrepentant secessionists, but my troops are needed for an expedition against Meridian.

Your obedient servant,

W. T. Sherman

 

[RDKirk]

Where in the textbook does it advocate in favor of slavery?

"With them came a justified fear that the slaves would abandon the plantation for the freedom they believed the Union army would provide."

Back in 1996, I read something similar in the Alabama History textbook that lay on a middle-school teacher's desk in Montgomery.

 

[HTacianas]

I think it's pretty clear in the pages I shared.

There is nothing in it that advocates slavery.

 

[Landon Caeli]

"With them came a justified fear that the slaves would abandon the plantation for the freedom they believed the Union army would provide."

"justified" is not being used in a morally difinitive sense, but rather how it was perceived.

 

[RDKirk]

"justified" is not being used in a moral sense, but rather how it was perceived.

The only times "justified" is not used in a 'moral sense" is when a builder is applying a plumb line to a wall or a writer is arranging text on a page.

In this case, yes, indeed, it is being used in a moral sense.

 

[Vap841]

I think it's pretty clear in the pages I shared.

Wouldn’t it be meant for shock value at how horrible reality was when there was slavery?

"With them came a justified fear that the slaves would abandon the plantation for the freedom they believed the Union army would provide."

I agreed with you that you solved the riddle when I first read it, but when I read it again it might not work if you hit the word THEM.

 

[HTacianas]

"With them came a justified fear that the slaves would abandon the plantation for the freedom they believed the Union army would provide."

Back in 1996, I read something similar in the Alabama History textbook that lay on a middle-school teacher's desk in Montgomery.

Was their fear justified? It's a yes or no question.

 

[Fantine]

It's history. How does simply stating what happened advocate for slavery?

Er...they described emancipation as the owners "losing their PROPERTY in slaves."

That very premise is immoral.

There is a term used by Catholics: sins of "omission." That history book is a mortal sin of omission.

For shame, Louisiana.

 

[morningstar2651]

Where in the textbook does it advocate in favor of slavery?

Like most neo-confederates in our country, they will dance around the subject without making a decisive statement.

Most neo-Nazis and neo-Confederates have learned that being blatantly public about their beliefs ends badly. It's better to hint at such beliefs through the use of dog whistles. It's a lot like jazz...It's not the notes you play, it's the notes you don't play. In this case, it's about what's being said about the civil war, and it's also about what's being left out. The things the chapter chooses not to talk about structure what the students are going to learn about. So let's take a look at these two pages in this context.

We begin our chapter on the civil war by telling a sympathetic story about a wealthy plantation owner who owned 150 slaves. We are meant to sympathize with and identify with Kate and her family.

All five of Kate's brothers served in the war on the Confederate side. In 1861, Kate wrote that the oldest was "wild to be off to Virginia" because he feared the fighting would "be over before he can get there" ... Sadly, by the end of 1863, two of her brothers had died while serving in the Confederate army...​

This is an oddly sympathetic way to write about someone who was excited to fight against and kill American soldiers. Let's continue our reading.

Kate expressed her firm Confederate patriotism, insisting, "Our cause is just and must prevail"​

Wait...what cause is that? The chapter doesn't say, but we know that the cause she believes is just is the cause of slavery.

Union forces arrived on the family's plantation in 1862. With them came a justified fear that their slaves would abandon the plantation for the freedom they believed the Union army would provide. In an attempt to limit her losses, Amanda Stone sent 120 of her slaves to Texas in 1863. She and Kate were forced to follow the slaves to Texas later that same year.​

Here we have more odd ways to phrase things...This is about a person that sent 120 slaves to Texas to keep them enslaved and prevent the United States from freeing them. The slaves escaping to freedom is framed as a financial loss.

The Stone women would remain refugees (people who are forced to leave their home or country) until the end of the war in 1865. They would be able to reclaim their plantation but, due to emancipation (the freeing of slaves), lost all their property in slaves.
​

There is a lot to unpack here. We're describing wealthy slave owners that sent their slaves to Texas to keep them enslaved as "refugees"...but what does this say about the slaves? There is no mention of them as "refugees" or no explanation of the term "slave". I checked chapter 9, and "slavery" isn't a defined term there either. Chapter 10 does, however, define the term "State's rights"

A state's right to what? The chapter doesn't say, but we know that the Civil War was fought over the states' right to legalize slavery.

This excerpt never says a negative word about slavery, but it has negative things to say about emancipation.

There are plenty of people that would make for a better introduction to this chapter. For example, General Sherman.

Let's take a look at the people mentioned in this chapter. Whose story is being told, and whose stories are not being told...let's color code these red for confederate and blue for American.

• Kate Stone - Confederate slave-owner.
• Amanda Stone - Confederate slave-owner.
• Harriet Beecher Stowe - Abolitionist
• Abraham Lincoln - American President
• Thomas Overton Moore - Confederate governor of Louisiana, ordered state militia to seize us military posts before the state seceded.
• Benjamin Palmer - Confederate Christian preacher that defended slavery and married a slave-owner.
• Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard - Confederate general
• Chatham Roberdeau Wheat - Confederate major
• David Farragut - the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and admiral in the United States Navy.
• Mansfield Lovell - Confederate major general.
• Jefferson Davis - Confederate president
• Benjamin Butler - American major general
• Nathaniel Banks - American general.
• Richard Taylor - Confederate general
• Ulysses S. Grant - American general
• Robert E. Lee - Confederate general
• Henry Watkins Allen - Confederate soldier and slave owner.
• John Wilkes Booth - Confederate, the assassin of President Lincoln.

 

[Vap841]

Er...they described emancipation as the owners "losing their PROPERTY in slaves."

That very premise is immoral.

There is a term used by Catholics: sins of "omission." That history book is a mortal sin of omission.

For shame, Louisiana.

Again I could see it two ways, on the one hand that’s exactly what slaves were, property, and the lead up of the story was the totality of their property was 1000 acres & 150 slaves, then most of it was lost. On the other hand I could see what you’re seeing in the wording of it. I’m very pessimistic about social engineering and I swear that they do 90% of this stuff on purpose to get everyone at each other’s throats on a never ending basis, call me a conspiracy theorist if you want lol

 

[Landon Caeli]

We begin our chapter on the civil war by telling a sympathetic story about a wealthy plantation owner who owned 150 slaves. We are meant to sympathize with and identify with Kate and her family.

​

I find it hard to believe that anyone would, or would be expected to sympathize with Kate or her family. To me, it opens our mind to the reality of how such people used to think, in a world very different from our own.

...To me, it is a story of history.

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

I find it hard to believe that anyone would, or would be expected to sympathize with Kate or her family. To me, it opens our mind to the reality of how such people used to think, in a world very different from our own.

One might think of that as the point of historical study. Bias can't be escaped but one can try to mitigate it in historical research.

 

[Landon Caeli]

One might think of that as the point of historical study. Bias can't be escaped but one can try to mitigate it in historical research.

That makes sense. I suppose some people would prefer not hearing from that side altogether. They would prefer to only hear the history that revolves around either the abuses, or the victories of the oppressed?

But then, that would be boring if they didn't portray the most curious parts... Like the mind of the slave holder... That's what modern people can't understand the most - so it makes learning 'interesting'.