Slavery never had a silver lining

In 1966, I received my Iowa teaching license which authorized me to teach “all social studies,” including United States History, in grades 7-12. With that license came, I thought, the responsibility to teach the truth as we knew it.

And we knew, for certain, that slavery was well-established in the English colonies in North America in the 17th century. Captured Africans arrived in ships from Africa and were sold at auction in the colonies that would become the United States. The Africans were packed tightly below ship decks in brutal, unsanitary conditions. Many did not survive the journey.

In the late 1600s, slavery was codified in several of the colonies. Called chattel slavery, the system allowed people, considered legal property, to be bought, sold, and owned forever. The new laws established slavery’s racial basis and dehumanizing structure. Slaves were often subjected to cruel working conditions, harsh punishments, rape, and inhumane living conditions.

Slavery existed in the Southern states for nearly 250 years until President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on Jan. 1, 1863. The 13th Amendment, ratified by Congress on Dec. 6, 1865, permanently abolished slavery in the United States.

During his presidency, Lincoln became resolute in his determination to end slavery and save democracy. He saw the destruction of slavery as the primary purpose of the Civil War. And for that, he is revered. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, included Lincoln in the company of Jesus, Amos, and Paul.

But even Lincoln, who opposed slavery on religious and moral grounds, did not escape the widespread racism of the 19th century. In a speech at Charleston, Illinois, on Sept. 18, 1858, during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, Lincoln said:

“I will say that I am not, nor never have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and Black races, that I am not nor have ever been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people….”

Lincoln evolved. America has evolved. But progress against racism has been met with many obstacles.

After the decade of Reconstruction, Jim Crow laws were quickly passed in Southern states. Those laws ruthlessly enforced racial segregation and legislated a pervasive lower class status for Black Americans.

White Americans used lynching to terrorize and control blacks in the 19th and well into the 20th century. According to NAACP records, 4,743 lynchings took place between 1882 and 1968 including the horrific murder of 14 year-old Emmett Till in 1955. The young men who killed Till were acquitted by an all-white jury, and, protected by the prohibition of double jeopardy, confessed, in a LOOK magazine article, to torturing and murdering Till because blacks “needed to stay in their place.”

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and beyond has done much to improve the lives of Black Americans, although work remains. It has produced many heroes — Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, politicians, preachers, freedom riders, and community organizers.

All of that is part of the American story, a story that must be taught in US History classes all across our nation. A story that must be taught without bias and certainly without attempts to induce guilt in students. A story that must be taught with all its glories and all its blemishes.

Now, some state legislatures are attempting to mandate how my social studies colleagues teach American history including requiring them to teach the “silver lining” in slavery. Other states and school districts are banning books because they disagree with ideas expressed. Books by Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize winner Toni Morrison are examples. That is interference we do not need. Politicians should stay out of our classrooms and let teachers teach.

Ralph Plagman is a licensed U.S. History teacher who worked as a teacher and administrator in the Cedar Rapids Community Schools for nearly 50 years.