Lets Take A Look At Our History...

I haven’t always been interested in history. In grade school I remember thinking many times, “what’s the point of learning about this?” As I have gotten older though, I have become more interested in learning many things, our history being one of them. What attracted me towards learning more about our history is the fact that many key historical facts are left out of our history books as children. The more I learn, the more I see how misinformed I was as a child being fed information that painted a picture which was not entirely accurate.

Recently I finished watching an amazing documentary called Slavery and the Making of America. This series is AMAZING! It opened my eyes and gave me a look into what actually happened with American slaves, which was not taught to me as a child (even by watching Roots). The documentary takes you through the beginning of slavery in the United States to the beginning of the Jim Crow laws.

Although there are many things that shocked me because they were completely different from what I was taught as a child, one of the biggest things that shocked me was the truth about Abraham Lincoln. As a child in the American school system our teachers paint this picture of “Honest Abe” as being the “Great Emancipator”, a friend to slaves, etc. But, this image of Abe is not entirely accurate.

As a child I was taught that the Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves in the United States. This is not true. The proclamation only freed slaves in the states which were rebelling against the union (confederate states). It did not free slaves in Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland or Delaware. It wasn’t until the Thirteenth Amendment that all slaves in all states were “free”.

Also, before Abe issued the Emancipation Proclamation he was seeking support for sending blacks in America to South America to form their own colonies. "For the sake of your race, you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people," Abe said. Abe did not believe that blacks and whites could coexist in the union.

Needless to say, the image that I have of Abe is completely different now. I do believe that he played a major role in American history, but the image that I have of him now is not of this man who was a friend to slaves or a fighter for equal rights to all people black and white. I now see Abe as another politician seeking to please his constituency. Of course, I don’t know what Abe’s true thoughts and feelings were about slaves, but his actions hint towards him being more concerned with the rights of white Americans and the survival of the union than the rights of slaves.

I urge you to seek out this information for yourself as I have/will…

Fred

Emancipation Proclamation

Black Resettlement

Colonization After Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement

Slavery and the Making of America

Emancipation Memorial