VA-7th-grade textbook circa 1961. "I trust you and your family had a pleasant crossing."

[kpete]

from:
https://joantrumpauermulholland.org/polite-racism/

[XanaDUer2]

1. Jeez

I read what I could of the text.

[Haggard Celine]

2. Who wrote that textbook, the Sons of Confederate Veterans?

[Bucky]

8. Nope

It was more like the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Confederates.

You think people don't understand about racism in the US is that it's not a throwback to the 19th century. It's a throwback to the mid 20th century.

[Haggard Celine]

10. The Sons of Confederate Veterans is

an organization that still exists. They don't mean that they are the literal sons of the veterans. They're descendants. And I know a lot about racism in the 20th century. Living in the Deep South, it's all around you. Down here you start learning about racism and civil rights at an early age, for better or worse.

[ShazzieB]

35. There's an organization for women, too.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy. To join either of these groups, you have to be able to prove you have at least one ancestor who fought for the Confederate side in the Civil War. These organizations are dedicated to preserving the history of the Confederacy.

It's easy to be unaware that these groups exist if you've haven't lived down south. Although they have chapters all over the country, they are (for obvious reasons) most active in states that were part of the Confederacy.

[Warpy]

50. We old Boomers get it, those were our textbooks

especially in the south during Jim Crow. When those textbooks had damaged us enough and were marked up and dog eared, the "separate but equal" black schools got them.

I don't think it's possible to explain to people under 40 just how pervasive this stuff was, and of course it was considered perfectly logical and reasonable. Even those of us who were rebels were damaged by it, and it was extremely destructive in the black schools.

It also took a long time to get rid of it. In some parts of the country, the process is ongoing.

[area51]

3. Wtaf?

[Hugin]

4. Wow...

[Bucky]

5. That's a funny caption about the "pleasant crossing"

I hope people realize that is not the actual caption in the illustration. The picture seems to be either a revisionist depiction of slaves being freed or of American emigrants bound for Liberia.

That's really a great, insightful article. Thank you for sharing. Having grown up in the south, I can remember dozens of examples of whitewashing the brutality out of slavery and the ongoing legacy of Jim Crow segregation as its and benefitees learned to hide its work in the shadows

[left-of-center2012]

14. "HAPPY SLAVES" DESCRIBED IN 7TH GRADE VIRGINIA TEXTBOOK USED FOR 20 YRS.

https://civilrightsheritage.com/2019/10/03/happy-slaves-described-in-7th-grade-virginia-textbook-used-for-20-yrs/

[Bucky]

17. I've seen plenty of this both as a student in the 70s and as a teacher on a text review committee

What I said was the caption about "enjoying your voyage" is a joke (that's not intended to be a depiction of newly arrived slaves).

Thanks for the all caps response. I might not have been able to read your response otherwise.

[left-of-center2012]

26. "Thanks for the all caps response"

I POSTED THE TITLE AS I FOUND IT

[Bucky]

27. Ah, here's some actual proof: showing this isn't intended to show slaves

I don't have the text of "Chapter 29", but you can see in the bits of text in this image actual references to Liberia and Thomas Herndon, the Virginia supporter of Liberian colonization schemes. Given the costumes shown in the picture and the context, I was sure this showed ex-slaves.



The site you linked to, while very good at exposing the horrible pro-apologist propaganda that persisted well past the civil rights era, does make the mistake of assuming the African Americans in the picture are slaves arriving on a slave ship. The captions to that picture "Notice the slave on the ship is wearing a suit and shaking hands as though he is a business partner" and "On the slave ship in a suit? With a handshake?" show a misunderstanding of the propaganda's subtlety.

In the context of the image and the clear intent to justify slavery to historical reviewers, the image is supposed to show the "happy ending" of white Americans joyfully sending grateful black Americans off to colonize Liberia. I mean, it's all still fucked up (the Liberian colony was a train wreck, essentially exporting American style racism and colonialism to Africa), but it's better to understand how these things work from a psychological point of view. The authors were more intent on fooling themselves than fooling us.

[llashram]

44. does not read that way to me

the suit is to deny the horror(s) of 'the Middle Passage'. The rape, disease, murder, and death ending as food for the sharks. There is nothing here to make one feel the trip to Liberia ended this way. Pure pro-slavery BS.

[Bucky]

46. You're not wrong if we were talking about the Middle Passage

But that's not what we're discussing. Yes, those horrible things were... horrible.

The clues to what's going on the pic with guys in the suits are pretty clearly laid out in the snippits of text seen in the picture. Is this propaganda? Of course! Pro Virginia, pro white supremacy propaganda, and only indirectly pro slavery.

We have no argument about it being bad history.

The question we're disputing is whether the black family is meant to be slaves. The text in the book tells you what this is. No one would buy that as a depiction of enslaved people. To think that, you have to categorically ignore the evidence right in front of your face.

Don't take it personally. There's a lot of that going around in this country lately. But this picture of historic cherry picking is about the colonization of Liberia (departing, not arriving), which anti-slavery white supremacists intended as a benign form of ethnic cleansing in the pre-war years.

[llashram]

53. provides clarity

Last edited Fri Jun 18, 2021, 07:10 PM - Edit history (2)

thank you

[CurtEastPoint]

6. Wow. I do NOT remember anything like this but maybe my memory is at fault. I was 11 at

that time so...

[GoodRaisin]

21. I do remember.

This is what was taught in our schools in Roanoke, Virginia. I was in the third grade in 1961, but I recall this kind of teaching the following year in the 4th grade and every year after that during grade school through the 7th grade. 4th grade featured a special school event called the "Virginia History Trip", in which all 4th graders were bused on a full day trip riding around historical sites such as Monticello and Appomatox. The final stop, Natural Bridge, sold lots of Confederate trinkets and flags and such. Half the kids piling out of the buses when we returned were waving confederate flags.

We were bombarded with Civil War and slavery history like what is depicted in the OP, and Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee and Jeb Stuart were glorified.

[Mr.Bill]

38. I was also in the third grade in Virginia in 1961, in Alexandria.

I don't remember anything like this in my textbooks, but I did go to a Catholic school, so I probably had different textbooks. In fact, I don't remember much on the subject of slavery at all. I do remember segregation. Only white people lived in our neighborhood. In November we moved to California, and I was immersed in cultural and racial diversity. Best thing that ever happened to me.

[Bucky]

22. Where were in school?

The "lost cause" narrative and the "benevolent slavemaster" narratives were often imbedded subtly in many textbooks in all parts of the country.

It's important to understand that these deceptions didn't come out of an intent "cover up the dirty truth" so much as a desire to self-delude on the part of white historians. So it wasn't just Confederate apologists involved in the misrepresentation of the brutality of American slavery. It was more often a case of psychological projection from ignorance, that is white historians only imagining how slavery would have worked from the POV of white slaveholders. The thought process would've been "Gosh, these were freedom-loving Americans holding these slaves. Surely they wouldn't have been intentionally abusive about it."

From there they're construct the schoolbook narratives to children intended to allay any doubts about the fundamental decency of all Americans. The "all men are basically good" myth is a cornerstone to the small-government, liberty-for-all mythos of American democracy.

[CurtEastPoint]

24. I went to school in Charlotte.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. I don't think so.

https://www.jekyllisland.com/the-water-and-the-blood/

[FSogol]

11. About 15 years ago, I went on a Irish coffin ship which were repurposed slave trading vessels.

I am 6'2" and the bottom hold where thousands of people were packed with little air was only about 5 feet tall. Even though only my son and I entered that hold, I still get claustrophobic about it today. I wake up at night horrified. Anyone whitewashing the horrors of slavery is despicable beyond belief.

[paleotn]

20. This! +10,000

[Kid Berwyn]

41. Exactly. If you are in Detroit...

...please set aside time for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

https://www.thewright.org/



They have a long term exhibit on what it was like to survive the Middle Passage on a slave ship. The website or photos can’t do it justice. Like what you and your son witnessed, it was absolutely inhumane. When I saw the exhibit, there was a life size replica of the hold — an outline with human figures chalked in. It’s a miracle anyone survived that torturous journey. Those who want to erase history and “move on” from the continuing effects of racism are despicable. They may be still have time to save their own humanity, if not their souls, but the hour’s getting late.

[Yavin4]

9. There are people alive today who were educated with this textbook.

They probably vote Republican and are convinced that they're not racist.

[Harker]

12. Whether intended or not...

it looks as though the sailor near the mast is going to hoist the black man off his feet.

Nice rope motif.

Whitewash.

[lark]

13. Lying fascists, trying to prettify the murderous Confederacy.

Todays rw asses are no different, they still hate anyone and everyone not rich, white, straight fascist male.

[left-of-center2012]

15. "HAPPY SLAVES" DESCRIBED IN 7TH GRADE VIRGINIA TEXTBOOK USED FOR 20 YRS.

https://civilrightsheritage.com/2019/10/03/happy-slaves-described-in-7th-grade-virginia-textbook-used-for-20-yrs/

Published in 1956 and used in Virginia classrooms through the late 1970’s, Virginia: History, Government, Geography by Francis B. Simkins and Spotswood H. Jones, and Sidman P. Poole describes the life of a Virginia slave as “happy”, “cheerful”, and “prosperous.”

“.…The Negroes learned also to enjoy the work and play of the plantations…Virginia offered a better life for the Negroes than did Africa…”

“A feeling of strong affection existed between masters and slaves in a majority of Virginia homes. . . The house servants became almost as much a part of the planter’s family circle as its white members. . . The Negroes were always present at family weddings. They were allowed to look on at dances and other entertainments . . . A strong tie existed between slave and master because each was dependent on the other. . .

The slave system demanded that the master care for the slave in childhood, in sickness, and in old age. The regard that master and slaves had for each other made plantation life happy and prosperous. Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those for whom they worked. . .

[Boomerproud]

16. No words.

[SoonerPride]

31. I have words.

They are all expletives.

[paleotn]

18. Welcome to the south....

The history they've been taught for generations is chock full of lies. Welcome to the north and west. The history they've been taught for generations is chock full of lies.

The ridiculous lies reveal that Americans harbor a deep seated, subconscious guilt about their history

[Paladin]

19. "The Peculiar Institution" by Kenneth M. Stampp (1956)

I have recommended this classic several times before on DU, and I'm doing it again. It was on a required-reading list for a history class I was taking as a freshman college student. I don't believe any one book has had such a profound effect on me---it washed away a young lifetime's worth of Confederate-friendly bullshit, picked up in the public schools and from my own family. I know there are plenty of other slavery-related works available; I still recommend Stampp's book, out of a lasting sense of gratitude.

[Pinback]

34. Thanks for the recommendation. (nt)

[Hekate]

40. I probably still have that book somewhere, dating from the early '70s. I hope it is still being read

[Paladin]

48. I first read it in 1968. I've read it a couple of times, since.

And like you, I sincerely hope it's still being read by as many people as possible.

[Hekate]

51. I started college in '65, and only had a couple of US History classes, as my interest was in Asia...

I majored in Asian and Pacific History, so I’m not sure where that book came in, unless it was originally my then-husband’s. My first husband was fascinated with the US South and took several classes on Southern history at the University of Hawai’i after we were married. He was born and raised in SoCal, where we met, but his mother’s side of the family had Southern roots, I believe.

I am just gobsmacked at the mythology being taught to this day in some places.

[Paladin]

52. Here in Texas, that "well-treated slave" myth is still believed by too many people.

I am overjoyed that Juneteenth has received official national status. Better late than never.

[liberalla]

23. I thought this was a joke. I'm stunned to read it was

an actual textbook! No wonder there are people who believe and spout this insidious garbage.

[Botany]

25. And this is correct?

"The regard that master and slaves had for each other made plantation life happy and prosperous. Life among the
Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy."

[Bucky]

29. In case you wanted to know how fucked up things were...

I'm pretty sure that's not a picture of a slave being whipped. The costumes are from at the earliest the 1880s. The dude in the front on the left with a proto-Windsor knot (probably a Merovingian knot) is either from the late Gilded Age or a time traveler. That's a picture of a "free" man being whipped in public.

[Marrah_Goodman]

28. I am speechless

[Auggie]

30. In 7th grade OHIO we were taught slaves "had it pretty good."

Really.

[Pinback]

32. JFC.

The “They had it better here than in Africa” narrative on steroids.

[The Jungle 1]

33. I want some of whatever that writer was on.

[Lucky Luciano]

36. Holy fuck!

[YoshidaYui]

37. fucking unbelievable

wow.

[Dawson Leery]

39. Read "Hitler's American Model". The Nazi regime learned their craft

from America. They openly admired the south.

[Hekate]

42. Oh dear gods

Just…speechless

[llashram]

43. pure AmeriKKKan bs

still with us today 60 years later, no no that's wrong, still with us 402 years later...

[ShazzieB]

45. I spent my elementary school years (1956-1952) in Chattanooga, TN.

Some major Civil War battles were fought in and around Chattanooga, and the area includes a number of historic sites related to the war. The Civil War is a BFD in Chattanooga, because it's such a big part of local history.

I remember hearing about the Civil War in school constantly. What I don't remember is ever hearing it called the "Civil War." It was always the War Between the States. That's the only name I knew it by. I was vaguely aware that there was something called the Civil War but wasn't sure what it was or when or where it happened, much less that it was the same war that was fought in my hometown.

We moved to Illinois in 1962, and I eventually learned what the phrase "Civil War" meant. It still boggles my mind to know that I grew up in an area that was literally steeped in Civil War history but insisted on calling it something else.

Of course, we were also fed the "happy negro" tropes in school. That goes without saying.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

47. Oh FFS

[bullwinkle428]

49. Gee, I wonder how that "War of Northern Aggression" meme developed?

[malaise]

54. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm! The Zong Massacre

Let me tell you about it

https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/zong-massacre-1781/

The slave ship Zong departed the coast of Africa on 6 September 1781 with 470 slaves. Since this human chattel was such a valuable commodity at that time, many captains took on more slaves than their ships could accommodate in order to maximize profits. The Zong’s captain, Luke Collingwood, overloaded his ship with slaves and by 29 November many of them had begun to die from disease and malnutrition. The Zong then sailed in an area in the mid-Atlantic known as “the Doldrums” because of periods of little or no wind. As the ship sat stranded, sickness caused the deaths of seven of the 17 crew members and over 50 slaves.

Increasingly desperate, Collingwood decided to “jettison” some of the cargo in order to save the ship and provide the ship owners the opportunity to claim for the loss on their insurance. Over the next week the remaining crew members threw 132 slaves who were sick and dying over the side. Another 10 slaves threw themselves overboard in what Collingwood later described as an “Act of Defiance.”

Upon the Zong’s arrival in Jamaica, James Gregson, the ship’s owner, filed an insurance claim for their loss. Gregson argued that the Zong did not have enough water to sustain both crew and the human commodities. The insurance underwriter, Thomas Gilbert, disputed the claim citing that the Zong had 420 gallons of water aboard when she was inventoried in Jamaica. Despite this the Jamaican court in 1782 found in favour of the owners. The insurers appealed the case in 1783 and in the process provoked a great deal of public interest and the attention of Great Britain‘s abolitionists. The leading abolitionist at the time, Granville Sharp, used the deaths of the slaves to increase public awareness about the slave trade and further the anti-slavery cause. It was he who first used the word massacre.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h280.html

Heading for Jamaica in 1781, the ship Zong was nearing the end of its voyage. It had been twelve weeks since it had sailed from the west African coast with its cargo of 417 slaves. Water was running out. Then, compounding the problem, there was an outbreak of disease. The ship's captain, reasoning that the slaves were going to die anyway, made a decision. In order to reduce the owner's losses he would throw overboard the slaves thought to be too sick to recover. The voyage was insured, but the insurance would not pay for sick slaves or even those killed by illness. However, it would cover slaves lost through drowning.

The captain gave the order; 54 Africans were chained together, then thrown overboard. Another 78 were drowned over the next two days. By the time the ship had reached the Caribbean,132 persons had been murdered.

When the ship returned to England the owners made their claim -- they wished to be compensated the full value for each slave lost. The claim might have been honored had if it had not been for former slave Equiano, then living in England, who learned of the tragedy and alerted an abolitionist friend of his. The case went to court. At first the jury ruled in favor of the ship's owners. Since it was permissible to kill animals for the safety of the ship, they decided, it was permissible to kill slaves for the same reason. The insurance company appealed, and the case was retried. This time the court decided that the Africans on board the ship were people. It was a landmark decision.

On another voyage, on another ship, a similar incident occurred. On La Rodeur in 1812, there was an outbreak of ophthalmia, a disease that causes temporary blindness. Both slaves and crew were afflicted. The captain, fearing that the blindness was permanent and knowing that blind slaves would be difficult if not impossible to sell, sent 39 slaves over the rails to their watery death. As with the captain of the Zong, he hoped that the insurance would cover the loss.