As a young boy, my favourite subject in school was history. I can remember being so excited to do my history homework and to hear about all the great stories that great people did to establish America as a country. All the way through high school, my interest remained high and full of excitement. My very first year as a freshman student, my history professor taught the same history we had all learned as children, but he started to teach about all the lies that we have been taught. The huge class of 18-year old students challenged him every day because we didn't want to believe anything that he was saying. It sounded as if we had been lied to our entire lives and we couldn't accept that fact. He never stopped teaching the truth. He ended up being one of my favourite teachers.
Now, that I am a mature man, I have spent more than 20 years taking a closer look at the things that I was taught as a child. Initially I spent too much time trying to prove to myself that I was taught the truth. Later, I tried to justify why a lot of the history lessons were like fairy tales similar to Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Realising that most of the history that I was taught and believed was nothing more than lies taught to tell a completely different story. Do you remember any of the history lessons that you experienced as a young child? It makes me sad to say that I remember all of them as I watch each of them dissolve like a cube of ice in my martini glass.
My initial question was why did the teachers lie to the students? The answer eluded me for a very long time, but now I realise that my teachers were probably taught the same lessons themselves and they truly believed them too. I have always preferred to be told the truth, regardless how painful it may or may not be. Here are a few history lessons that I learned in school that have proven to be myths, or just cold-blooded lies.
One of the first lessons that I remember is that Christopher Columbus discovered America which is untrue. First of all, his real name was Cristoforo Colombo. When Columbus stumbled on the Americas, millions of people were living there. Many others arrived before him, such as the Vikings. How do you discover a land when people are living on the land? Shouldn't it be their land? Our teachers forgot to teach us that Columbus also started the Atlantic slave trade, making we wonder why Columbus Day is a celebration. I am still unsure of what is being celebrated. Most of the indigenous people already living on the land were slaughtered and their land was burned down, forcing them to roam the country for new places to rebuild. Apparently, this act of cruelty has occurred around the world to other indigenous people. I am learning about similar stories with the indigenous people of Australia and the cruel treatment received under British control.
One of the lessons I wished would have been taught was why there was conflict with England that led to a revolution. I have learned that the first President of the United States, George Washington wanted the land of the indigenous people and Great Britain said, "No, we have treaty line with the natives." This was one of the biggest reasons for the Revolution and the war of 1812. I never received this background information in school
Jim Crow was never taught in my school. I learned about the Jim Crow era watching Hollywood movies such as the Green Book, although many will disagree that it was a film based on the way things were in the 1960s. I learned about Jim Crow a few years ago when introduced to The New Jim Crow: The Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness, by Michelle Alexander in 2010. The New Jim Crow is a stunning account of the rebirth of a caste-like system in the United States, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class status—denied the very rights supposedly won in the Civil Rights Movement.
The Jim Crow movement wasn't just in the southern states in America, it was national discrimination. North Dakota passed a law outlawing interracial marriage. During that time Harvard University evicted Black students out of the dormitories. There was forced racial segregation in 1877 and the beginning of the civil rights movement in the 1950s. Jump Jim Crow" or "Jim Crow" is a song and dance from 1828 that was done in blackface by white minstrel performer Thomas Dartmouth (T. D.) "Daddy" Rice. The song is speculated to have been taken from Jim Crow, a physically disabled enslaved African, who is variously claimed to have lived in St. Louis, Cincinnati, or Pittsburgh. "Jump Jim Crow" music was based on the racist "imitation" and mockery of black people. In the 1870s, southern state legislators passed laws requiring the separation of white people from people of colour on public transportation, schools, parks, theatres, cemeteries, and restaurants to show that the two were not equal. I never learned any of this history in my school. Some parts of the old history still feels like it's alive and thriving today, especially when I look at the judges on the U.S Supreme Court and those sitting in the Congress & Senate supporting racist legislation.
Another detriment to society was making all children learn the words to the national anthem created by Francis Scott Key in 1931, so they could stand up and sing them without knowing what they meant. Key was an advocate for slavery. He was a lawyer born to massive slave holding wealth in Maryland. He was one of the richest men in America during that time. With his support, the U.S. Supreme Court stood for slavery. Soon afterwards, President Andrew Jackson, also a wealthy slaveholder, named Key as the U.S. District Attorney for the nation's capital where he prosecuted race and slavery laws, even the death penalty. Very much like Trump's presidency, Jackson brought brutal, racially motivated mob violence that included a race riot in Washington, DC. Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback with the San Francisco 49ers team places Frances Scott Key in a harsher light, showing the racist white supremacy of the so-called national anthem. It feels wrong that someone with narrow views of equality and freedom would write a national anthem for a nation. We must never forget that Key was a slaveholder. He never saw all people as equal.
This all makes me wonder how much has changed for people of colour. Even though we have laws, our schools are still teaching lies to our children. When I think about Black solders that went off to war to be treated with disrespect once they returned home after fighting for their country. During war, segregation was still an issue with soldiers. Most Black men were placed on the front lines to face danger head on. When I look at corporations or companies today, discrimination and racism still exists in their hiring practices and how staff of colour as mistreated.
One of the biggest lies taught was that President George Washington chopped down a cherry tree and he couldn't tell a lie when his father asked who chopped it down. None of that was true, it was all a lie.
Another fantasy was Paul Revere on horse back yelling over and over again, "The British Are Coming". Well, that never happened, he never used those words, and he wasn't traveling alone, there were others with him on horseback.
We were also taught that independence was granted and should be celebrated on July 4th, although we didn't really understand what it meant, it was a school holiday and we got to see fireworks and have a barbecue to celebrate. The date was incorrect. Fact: The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia on July 1, 1776, and the next day representatives from the 13 colonies approved a motion to declare independence, ratifying it on July 4th, but it was not signed. On August 2, 1776, the signing took place. However, it took a while for King George III of England to hear about the declaration, making his first public remarks on the matter in October 1776. I didn't learn any of this in school.
Another well-known myth is that President John F. Kennedy was responsible for civil rights legislation. In all honesty, he had very little to do with it. When Kennedy heard about the planned march on Washington, DC where Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his 'I have a dream' speech, he tried to stop it from happening. I have also learned that during this time he sent his Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson, to cover meetings in Norway during the march because he disagreed with his VP's civil rights policies. Kennedy was forced to act on civil rights after the Freedom Riders and the assassination of Medgar Evers, but he feared that his future legislation would never pass and would hurt his chances of passing bills he cared about the most. After the assassination of Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson became the President and put all of his efforts behind the civil rights act. He used the grief and frustration of the people to influence Congress to act. In the end, John F. Kennedy got all the credit.
Did you learn that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb? He created lots of things, but the lightbulb is questionable. Edison was known as a monopolising, thieving jerk. It was known that he stole several innovations that led him to creating and taking credit for the light bulb. Edison received full credit because he was great at telling stories and creating publicity. The light bulb is just one of his questionable inventions. This all reminds me of an episode of Murdock Mysteries where the Edison character appeared in many scenes ripping off creative ideas. I thought it was just a joke, but not anymore.
Everyone knows the answer to this question -- Who sewed the first American flag. Without having to think very hard I would say Betsy Ross and I would be wrong. She did sew several flags, but not the first American flag. False stories were created by her descendants. Her name was never mentioned in relation to the flag until almost 100 years later when her grandson decided to inform the historical society of Philadelphia and they believed him. I am uncertain of any proof that was presented. To my knowledge, there is still no legitimate evidence and the story is true. However, many schools are still teaching this misinformation. I often wonder how difficult it would be if I would have showed up at the historical society to say that my great grandmother, a black slave sewed the first American flag. Would my word and shaky documents be enough to convince them in my skin?
Hang with me just a bit longer. There are a lot of lessons flying around in my head, but just a couple more, I promise. The story of Rosa Parks has been edited a lot. The truth is that Rosa Parks was not sitting in the white section of the segregated bus, she was sitting in the first row of the middle section for African Americans. As the bus became packed with more white people getting on, the driver demanded that all the Black people give up their seats, even though it was considered the coloured section and they had paid the same fare as the white people to ride the bus. She refused because she was exhausted. We all know what exhaustion feels like at the end of a long, hectic day of working.
Who invented the telephone? Alexander Graham Bell flows out of the mouth easier than air because we have been taught that information, but it's not true. He was the first to patent it in 1876. Bell was only one of many people working on the idea. Did you know that in 2002, Congress recognised a Florentine immigrant as the inventor? His name was Antonio Meucci, a mechanical genius, as the father of modern communications, 113 years after his death. Meucci created it in 1860, but Bell patent it 16 years later in 1876.
And finally, one of the best stories was about Pocohontas and John Smith. We were led to believe there was a special relationship between the two of them. It was taught in schools, used by Disney, and even used as lyrics in songs. Fiction. Pocohontas was 8 years old when John Smith arrived. She was later married to a young Indian warrior and his name wasn't John.
Of course, this is only the tip of the iceberg of lies that are created and end up in history books that we keep teaching year after year, century after century, to our children and to each other. I wonder why there is no place in history for true facts. The stories would be even more interesting. I can remember in many of my classes, students were not allowed to ask too many questions such as how George Washington and all those men crossed the Delaware in such a small canoe. I spent an hour standing in a corner for raising this issue as a 9-year old. Today I have learned that was a lie too, Washington and his team crossed the Delaware in a 60-foot-long flat boat guided by capable men and it wasn't tipsy as it appeared in history books.
What stories stand out in your mind that you were taught in school? Also, what are the benefits of fabricating history with lies and fake information? It feels like a divisive plan to keep cultures apart. What do you think? Oh, thanks for holding on till the end, history can be a dry topic.
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