Black People : African Americans in the Confederacy

Istari

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Sep 17, 2010
222
150
all over
Occupation
taking care of my family and myself
Check this ILL ISH out they are feeding the black youths in the VA school system!

By Kevin Sieff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 20, 2010; 12:53 AM

A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands
of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War -- a
claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to
play down slavery's role as a cause of the conflict.

The passage appears in "Our Virginia: Past and Present," which was
distributed in the state's public elementary schools for the first
time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained
historian but has written several books, said she found the
information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through
Internet research, which turned up work by members of the Sons of
Confederate Veterans.

Scholars are nearly unanimous in calling these accounts of black
Confederate soldiers a misrepresentation of history. Virginia
education officials, after being told by The Washington Post of the
issues related to the textbook, said that the vetting of the book was
flawed and that they will contact school districts across the state to
caution them against teaching the passage.

"Just because a book is approved doesn't mean the Department of
Education endorses every sentence," said spokesman Charles Pyle. He
also called the book's assertion about black Confederate soldiers
"outside mainstream Civil War scholarship."

Masoff defended her work. "As controversial as it is, I stand by what
I write," she said. "I am a fairly respected writer."

The issues first came to light after College of William & Mary
historian Carol Sheriff opened her daughter's copy of "Our Virginia"
and saw the reference to black Confederate soldiers.

"It's disconcerting that the next generation is being taught history
based on an unfounded claim instead of accepted scholarship," Sheriff
said. "It concerns me not just as a professional historian but as a
parent."

Virginia, which is preparing to mark the 150th anniversary of the
beginning of the Civil War, has long struggled to appropriately
commemorate its Confederate past. The debate was reinvigorated this
spring, when Gov. Robert F. Mc¬Don¬nell (R) introduced "Confederate
History Month" in Virginia without mentioning slavery's role in the
Civil War. He later apologized.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group of male descendants of
Confederate soldiers based in Columbia, Tenn., has long maintained
that substantial numbers of black soldiers fought for the South The
group's historian-in-chief, Charles Kelly Barrow, has written the book
"Black Confederates."

The Sons of Confederate Veterans also disputes the widely accepted
conclusion that the struggle over slavery was the main cause of the
Civil War. Instead, the group says, the war was fought "to preserve
their homes and livelihood," according to John Sawyer, chief of staff
of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Army of Northern Virginia. He
said the group was pleased that a state textbook accepted some of its
views.

The state's curriculum requires textbook publishers and educators to
explore the role African Americans played in the Confederacy,
including their work on plantations and on the sidelines of battle.
Those standards have evolved in recent years to make lessons on the
Civil War more inclusive in a state that is growing increasingly
diverse.

When Masoff began work on the textbook, she said she consulted a
variety of sources -- history books, experts and the Internet. But
when it came to one of the Civil War's most controversial themes --
the role of African Americans in the Confederacy -- she relied
primarily on an Internet search.

The book's publisher, Five Ponds Press, based in Weston, Conn., sent a
Post reporter three of the links Masoff found on the Internet. Each
referred to work by Sons of the Confederate Veterans or others who
contend that the fight over slavery was not the main cause of the
Civil War.

In its short lesson on the roles that whites, African Americans and
Indians played in the Civil War, "Our Virginia" says, "Thousands of
Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black
battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson."

Masoff said of the assertion: "It's just one sentence. I don't want to
ruffle any feathers. If the historians had contacted me and asked me
to take it out, I would have."

She added that the book was reviewed by a publisher's advisory council
of educators and that none of the advisers objected to the textbook's
assertion.

Historians from across the country, however, said the sentence about
Confederate soldiers was wrong or, at the least, overdrawn. They
expressed concerns not only over its accuracy but over the
implications of publishing an assertion so closely linked to
revisionist Confederate history.

"It's more than just an arcane, off-the-wall problem," said David
Blight, a professor at Yale University. "This isn't just about the
legitimacy of the Confederacy, it's about the legitimacy of the
emancipation itself."

Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McPherson of Princeton
University said, "These Confederate heritage groups have been making
this claim for years as a way of purging their cause of its
association with slavery."

Masoff said one of her sources was Ervin Jordan, a University of
Virginia historian who said he has documented evidence -- in the form
of 19th-century newspapers and personal letters -- of some African
Americans fighting for the Confederacy. But in an interview, Jordan
said the account in the fourth-grade textbook went far beyond what his
research can support.

"There's no way of knowing that there were thousands," Jordan said.
"And the claim about Jackson is totally false. I don't know where that
came from."

The book also survived the Education Department's vetting and was
ruled "accurate and unbiased" by a committee of content specialists
and teachers. Five Ponds Press has published 14 books that are used in
the Virginia public school system, all of them written by Masoff.

Masoff also wrote "Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty" and
"Oh Yikes! History's Grossest Moments."
 
"The Sons of Confederate Veterans also disputes the widely accepted
conclusion that the struggle over slavery was the main cause of the
Civil War. Instead, the group says, the war was fought "to preserve
their homes and livelihood,"
according to John Sawyer, chief of staff
of the Sons of Confederate Veterans' Army of Northern Virginia."

yeah, and slavery was ur livelihood. smh

My hs history book also said that some slaves fought on the side of the confederacy in exchange for "freedom". But since they were slaves they were probably forced to fight.

But I wouldn't be surprised if some did volunteer; you have always had good negroes willing to risk it all for yt.
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top