Revisionists aren't stopping with the Confederacy

formersoldier71

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A petition is calling for Yale University in Connecticut to change the name of its residential Calhoun College, which honors 1804 alumnus John C. Calhoun, a prominent advocate of the slave plantation system who became a vice president and U.S. senator from South Carolina. The petition says the name, in place since the 1930s, represents "an indifference to centuries of pain and suffering among the black population."

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In Connecticut, the revisionist sentiment has extended in some quarters to non-Confederate figures. The state Democratic Party will decide this month whether to strip the names of two slave-owning U.S. presidents, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, from the moniker of its 67-year-old annual fundraising dinner. The party's chairman, Nick Balletto, said the shooting made him think about how the party has changed and "history has not been kind" to Jefferson and Jackson.

"If we want the party of the people, we need to reflect what our community is and we should step up and make a change," he said.
http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2015/07/institutions_reconsider_confed.html#incart_river
 

selmaborntidefan

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Good. This means the backlash will start about next week.

Of course, most folks don't actually have the courage of their convictions. I'm sure they still use money with pictures of Washington and Jefferson (slave owners) and Jackson (Indian killer).

And hey, let's STOP recognition of Columbus Day while we're at it. Come to think of it, MLK was a plagiarist, too to say nothing of an adulterating hypocritical preacher.

I mean, let's not be selective in our outrage here.
 

Tidewater

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On May 1, 1957, a committee chaired to selected the top five senators of all time, led by John F. Kennedy, reported to the Senate its choices: Henry Clay (KY), John C. Calhoun (SC), Daniel Webster (MA), Robert Taft (OH), and Robert La Follette, Sr. (WI).

Every student of United States history knows that Jefferson and Alex LeBatard Hamilton were on opposite sides of the question of whether the general government had the power to erect a 1st Bank of the United States. Alex said yes. TJ said no. Geo. Washington, to his eternal discredit, sided with Alex, possibly the blackest mark on GW's record.

Jefferson, in 1793 wrote to Madison how to oppose the 1st BUS:
The power of erecting banks and corporations was not given to the general government. It remains then with the state legisl. state itself. For any person to recognise a foreign legislature in a case belonging to the state itself, is an act of treason against the state, and whosoever shall do any act under colour of the authority of a foreign legislature whether by signing notes, issuing or passing them, acting as director, cashier or in any other office relating to it shall be adjudged guilty of high treason and suffer death accordingly, by the judgment of the state courts.
That is out of step with the modern Democrat party.
 

CajunCrimson

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TV Land will no longer show "The Jeffersons", "All in the Family" (because they featured a 'traditional' heterosexual family unit) -- and that is likely to cause them to drop any future showings of "The Brady Bunch", "Everybody Loves Raymond", "Gilligan's Island" (due to a lack of diversity of the cast members), and "Good Times" but only the post James Evans dying in a car crash episodes -- On another note, Billboard magazine has decided to remove all charted records from "Confederate Railroad", "Lynyrd Skynyrd", "Charlie Daniels Band", "The Allman Brothers Band" and Alabama's recording of "Dixieland Delight" as well as the recording "The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down" by both Baez and The Band
 

Tide1986

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I wonder how many Americans know who John C. Calhoun is, not to mention the black population that some liberal academic elites deem should be offended.
 

selmaborntidefan

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I wonder how many Americans know who John C. Calhoun is, not to mention the black population that some liberal academic elites deem should be offended.
John C Calhoun - didn't Grandpa Jones play him on that "Hee Haw" skit "The Calhouns?"
 

chanson78

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At least they aren't leaving out significant portions of history from history books that are being used to educate children in the public school system. I mean, that would be crazy. Right?

Texas officials: Schools should teach that slavery was ‘side issue’ to Civil War

WashingtonPost said:
Five million public school students in Texas will begin using new social studies textbooks this fall based on state academic standards that barely address racial segregation. The state’s guidelines for teaching American history also do not mention the Ku Klux Klan or Jim Crow laws.

...snip...

Students in Texas are required to read the speech Jefferson Davis gave when he was inaugurated president of the Confederate States of America, an address that does not mention slavery. But students are not required to read a famous speech by Alexander Stephens, Davis’s vice president, in which he explained that the South’s desire to preserve slavery was the cornerstone of its new government and “the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution.”

...snip...

James W. Loewen , a sociologist who wrote the best-selling book “Lies My Teacher Told Me ,” says textbooks perpetuate myths about the Civil War in order to avoid offending state textbook-adoption panels. Nineteen states, including almost all of those in the South, adopt textbooks at the state level, according to the Association of American Publishers.


“I think we are at last seeing the de-Confederatization of America,” Loewen said. “And I’m hoping that we will see some action towards de-Confederatizing our textbooks.”

Loewen, who has reviewed many textbooks, said he has found many errors and omissions that help de-emphasize the role slavery played in causing the war. Among the biggest and most common problems, he said, is textbooks’ failure to quote from key primary sources: the Southern states’ declarations of secession, which made clear that they were leaving the union to protect white citizens’ right to own slaves.

“Our position is clearly identified with the institution of slavery,” reads Mississippi’s declaration , signed in 1861.

Loewen identified one textbook — “American Pageant ,” in print for more than half a century — that quoted directly from South Carolina’s secession document. That’s admirable, Loewen said, but the quotation leaves out the document’s direct language about the role of slavery in driving South Carolina’s decision.

History can be a “weapon,” Loewen said, and it has been used “against all of us. It makes us all stupid about the past and thoughtless about the present.”
 

Tidewater

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At least they aren't leaving out significant portions of history from history books that are being used to educate children in the public school system. I mean, that would be crazy. Right?

Texas officials: Schools should teach that slavery was ‘side issue’ to Civil War
Loewen is a Left-Statist revisionist in the worse sense of that term. Of course, he hates the Confederacy because anything that stands up to the Federal government has got to be slandered as evil. He wants to make sure no American child ever hears anything other than slavery as a sole cause of secession.

28% of Texas families owned slaves. What could possess the nonslaveholding 72% to support secession?
Until you know who Nepomuceno Cortinas was, what the ""Texas Troubles" were, and how precarious life was on the Texas frontier in 1860, then you (and Loewen for that matter) are speaking out of ignorance or simply attempting to be deceptive for some purpose.
 

chanson78

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Loewen is a Left-Statist revisionist in the worse sense of that term. Of course, he hates the Confederacy because anything that stands up to the Federal government has got to be slandered as evil. He wants to make sure no American child ever hears anything other than slavery as a sole cause of secession.

28% of Texas families owned slaves. What could possess the nonslaveholding 72% to support secession?
Until you know who Nepomuceno Cortinas was, what the ""Texas Troubles" were, and how precarious life was on the Texas frontier in 1860, then you (and Loewen for that matter) are speaking out of ignorance or simply attempting to be deceptive for some purpose.
I am only pointing out that information indicating some states openly stated they were leaving for the reason of slavery is now being left out of the Texas history books. That, and other quotes which are a matter of record, make up the whole picture. Isn't the whole goal of historians to accurately record and interpret things as they happened and to not selectively shape it one way or another. Whether you like Loewen or not, whitewashing Texas history books of any record that slavery played at least a part in the civil war is wrong.

As an aside, if you go back, I have been a pretty staunch defender of the fact that the civil war happened for far more reasons than slavery. To assume that I am attempting to be deceptive because a guy you don't like was quoted in an article I posted which you seem to disagree with is pretty weak.
 

Tidewater

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I am only pointing out that information indicating some states openly stated they were leaving for the reason of slavery is now being left out of the Texas history books.
No, I believe they are not presenting the "all slavery and nothing but slavery" interpretation which Left-Statists like Loewen want presented.
That, and other quotes which are a matter of record, make up the whole picture. Isn't the whole goal of historians to accurately record and interpret things as they happened and to not selectively shape it one way or another.
Loewen is not an historian. He is a sociologist.
Whether you like Loewen or not, whitewashing Texas history books of any record that slavery played at least a part in the civil war is wrong.
So, which Texas history books eliminate all reference to slavery in relation to the Civil War?
 
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CajunCrimson

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Heck, I'm surprised that there is a school district that's still teaching the Civil War at all.....Most History classes now start at the Industrial Revolution......
 

Tidewater

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I am only pointing out that information indicating some states openly stated they were leaving for the reason of slavery is now being left out of the Texas history books. That, and other quotes which are a matter of record, make up the whole picture. Isn't the whole goal of historians to accurately record and interpret things as they happened and to not selectively shape it one way or another. Whether you like Loewen or not, whitewashing Texas history books of any record that slavery played at least a part in the civil war is wrong.

As an aside, if you go back, I have been a pretty staunch defender of the fact that the civil war happened for far more reasons than slavery. To assume that I am attempting to be deceptive because a guy you don't like was quoted in an article I posted which you seem to disagree with is pretty weak.
Apologies about the wording. I was suggesting that you probably had not heard of Nupomuceno Cartinas, the Texas Troubles, and the Comanche raids on the Texas frontier. Not many Americans are familiar with these, but I can assure you, Texans in 1860 were intimately familiar with them.
Loewen is either (a) ignorant of these (he is, after all, a sociologist) or (b) he knows about them and deliberately suppresses knowledge of them to further his political agenda. Neither alternative is very attractive.
 

chanson78

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No, I believe they are not presenting the "all slavery and nothing but slavery" interpretation which Left-Statists like Loewen want presented.

Loewen is not an historian. He is a sociologist.

So, which Texas history books eliminate all reference to slavery in relation to the Civil War?
I misspoke when I said "Whether you like Loewen or not, whitewashing Texas history books of any record that slavery played at least a part in the civil war is wrong." They are clearly not removing all references to it. However they seem to be cherry picking the facts and information that indicate it played anything more than a "side issue".

I think it is integral to historical context to realize that some states were more tightly coupled to slavery than others. Some, like Texas, had extenuating circumstances that made them choose to side with the confederates.

Apologies about the wording. I was suggesting that you probably had not heard of Nupomuceno Cartinas, the Texas Troubles, and the Comanche raids on the Texas frontier. Not many Americans are familiar with these, but I can assure you, Texans in 1860 were intimately familiar with them.
Loewen is either (a) ignorant of these (he is, after all, a sociologist) or (b) he knows about them and deliberately suppresses knowledge of them to further his political agenda. Neither alternative is very attractive.
Thanks for that. To your point, I had not heard of Nupomuceno Cartinas and when I get some time I am going to go check him out. Thank you.

I am not a fan of Loewen. Just like I am not a fan of anyone who tries to present the facts that they think people should know to the exclusion of others. I'll grant that trying to cover something as complex as the civil war in a middle/high school history class is going to be a daunting task. I don't have access to an actual textbook that has been approved, so I have no concrete evidence one way or the other. How about I leave it like this? A complete historical record is important no matter the subject, selectively shielding or excluding information to push one side or the other is deplorable. I can say that had this article been the other way, where Loewen or his ilk had managed to get a version that only taught slavery as the reason, I would have been just as cranky.
 

Tidewater

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I misspoke when I said "Whether you like Loewen or not, whitewashing Texas history books of any record that slavery played at least a part in the civil war is wrong." They are clearly not removing all references to it. However they seem to be cherry picking the facts and information that indicate it played anything more than a "side issue".

I think it is integral to historical context to realize that some states were more tightly coupled to slavery than others. Some, like Texas, had extenuating circumstances that made them choose to side with the confederates.



Thanks for that. To your point, I had not heard of Nupomuceno Cartinas and when I get some time I am going to go check him out. Thank you.

I am not a fan of Loewen. Just like I am not a fan of anyone who tries to present the facts that they think people should know to the exclusion of others. I'll grant that trying to cover something as complex as the civil war in a middle/high school history class is going to be a daunting task. I don't have access to an actual textbook that has been approved, so I have no concrete evidence one way or the other. How about I leave it like this? A complete historical record is important no matter the subject, selectively shielding or excluding information to push one side or the other is deplorable. I can say that had this article been the other way, where Loewen or his ilk had managed to get a version that only taught slavery as the reason, I would have been just as cranky.
Cool.

One of my ancestors, Rip Ford, was a Texas Ranger and I have held in my hands letters to him from Sam Houston directing him to get to the bottom of the Cortinas thing and the Comanche raids and Rip's replies. In both cases, the Federal government either blocked investigation (Comanches) or pleaded insufficiency of resources (Cortinas). And in both cases, Texans responded by thinking to themselves, "What the heck are we doing in the Union if the Union can't or won't protect us from such violence? What is the point of being a member of the Union?"
 

TideEngineer08

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Cool.

One of my ancestors, Rip Ford, was a Texas Ranger and I have held in my hands letters to him from Sam Houston directing him to get to the bottom of the Cortinas thing and the Comanche raids and Rip's replies. In both cases, the Federal government either blocked investigation (Comanches) or pleaded insufficiency of resources (Cortinas). And in both cases, Texans responded by thinking to themselves, "What the heck are we doing in the Union if the Union can't or won't protect us from such violence? What is the point of being a member of the Union?"
Fascinating stuff. Current events seem to be history repeating itself. As it seems always to do.
 

seebell

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If you read the declarations of secession by Texas and South Carolina, slavery is plainly mentioned as the reason they are leaving the Union. I will research the other states.
 

seebell

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Cool.

One of my ancestors, Rip Ford, was a Texas Ranger and I have held in my hands letters to him from Sam Houston directing him to get to the bottom of the Cortinas thing and the Comanche raids and Rip's replies. In both cases, the Federal government either blocked investigation (Comanches) or pleaded insufficiency of resources (Cortinas). And in both cases, Texans responded by thinking to themselves, "What the heck are we doing in the Union if the Union can't or won't protect us from such violence? What is the point of being a member of the Union?"
The award winning Texas author Elmer Kelton has a series of fictional books dealing with the Texas Rangers and Comanches. Before, during and after the Civil war. Good stuff.
 

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