"The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism

[Rsmyth]

Great question Eva! I grew up in the suburbs of New York City. In school I loved history all the way back to the dinosaurs. I remember pouring over color drawings of Civil War battles depicted in Life Magazine circa 1959. I cannot remember a mention of the cause (except secession) of the war. They did mention Lee & Grant, Gettysburg, Appomattox and Lincoln being shot. That was it in a nutshell then we were on to the culmination of the Indian wars and unrest in Europe.

As far as wealth in the U.S. slavery was never mentioned in grade schools. They got around that issue by mentioning Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin. Not the effect it had on the growing demand for cotton and hence a greater need for cheap labor. The wealth of the country was attributed to the attitudes and inventivness of the people's living here at the time, manifest destiny and the industrial revolution. When I say people's living here, I exclude slaves, Mexicans and Indians. The latter two needed to be removed for growth of new lands, a lot of which southerners hoped would include slavery - although we were not taught that as much as we were not taught the real reasons behind the Mexican American War; increasing the land mass of the country and opening it up to slavery, by seizing it from a country reeling and weakened by revolution before another country grabbed it.

So, in schools (I can only speak about public school), textbooks never mentioned the reasons this country was involved in the dark issues of our history. We then jump to the glory (gory) years of our involvement in world affairs where we help save everyone from German expansionism which (according to the history books) was quite different than manifest destiny.

I graduated high school during the height of the Viet Nam War (1968) and served four years to prevent the world from falling victim to communism. At least that is what we were told. I do not know what they teach today. History is truly written by the victors and a great study would be how our textbooks have evolved through that history.