Posted on 04/20/2016 10:18:38 AM PDT by golux
By making explicit or implicit connections between the Underground Railroad and Tubman's trips, and by depicting Tubman as an Underground Railroad superstar, the textbooks imply that the paramount purpose of the Underground Railroad was to launch slave-stealing expeditions. That is false. The Underground Railroad was not in the business of staging raids, and Tubman's excursions were idiosyncrasies at best.
(...)
The salient points that occur again and again in the textbooks' accounts of Tubman -- such as the claim that she made nineteen trips to liberate slaves, and the claim that slave-owners put a huge price on her head -- are not historical facts. They are inventions.
(...)
All five of the textbooks that I have considered here give false impressions of the nature and effectiveness of the Underground Railroad, and all five mislead students by dwelling on Harriet Tubman and on fictitious accounts of her deeds. None of the books can give students any realistic idea of what the Underground Railroad was. None makes clear that most of the activities of the Underground Railroaders took place in the brief period between the enactment of the Compromise of 1850 (which included the Fugitive Slave Act of the same year) and the start of the Civil War....
(Excerpt) Read more at textbookleague.org ...
I just read that Tubman is going to be put on the $20?
I think it is because they want to leave $10 bill alone because of one sucessful Broadway play right now.
No kidding
Poor Jackson
Fought and bled from very early on for this country thrown under the bus for the sake of political correctness
PC and racism win yet again in the America “ruled” by Clown Prince nobama, the Lawless One.
Poor Jackson. Fought against the national bank and got stuck on the $20 Federal Reserve Note as a reward.
Many black historical figures have been propped up by pure mythologies. Carver invented nothing. Peanut butter was already around. The traffic lights were already working. And it is heresy to point out MLK’s radical leftist and communist ties.
I’m confused what the purpose of this article is.
(1) Since the purpose of the Underground Railroad was established with the 1850 Supreme Court ruling, and mooted by the Civil War, I’d guess most people would presume it was active PRINCIPALLY, perhaps not realizing exclusively between 1850 and the Civil War.
(2) Up to 100,000 slaves escaped via the Underground Railroad. That’s a very significant number! I don’t think anyone expects the Underground Railroad depopulated the Southern Slave plantations!
(3) I’ve never encountered the claim that the Underground Railroad involved raids. Tubman, however, *was* involved in John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, so if it’s inferred from that that raids took place, that inference is as correct as its popularity.
(4) I probably just never paid attention to any precise number of trips Tubman made, so I can’t support or refute the notion that she took 19. But so what if the number is imprecise or uncertain? Wikipedia says 13, FWIW.
(5) Define “huge” in “huge price on her head”? It’s hard to refute a subjective word like “huge.” But she did have a price on her head. I found claims of a $40,000 reward which appear to be exaggerated: In 1868, someone claimed that a $40,000 reward wouldn’t’ve seemed unreasonable; another source supposes that figure comes from tallying all the various bounties. But what’s the point of arguing how big the rewards on her head were?
Will Trump have the balls?
Prolly not
About half of MLK’s PhD was plagiarized and his was Mike, he never took any LEGAL moves to actually change the first two thirds of his name to Martin Luther.
His dad, however, was a huuuuuge fan of Martin Luther (of Reformation fame) and adopted that monniker for him.
Yes, of course. (I think you mean “imply,” by the way, rather than “infer.”) And really, at this point, what difference does it make? Alex Haley’s story is a total fabrication... Kwanzaa is a fabrication... Lots of things taught in schools are fabrications! It doesn’t really matter, does it?
“And it is heresy to point out MLK’s radical leftist and communist ties”
Not to mention his plagiarism and chronic womanizing. Many of our cherished “heros” have feet of clay.
See, I had heard on my earth radio this morning that the musical that I had mentioned, you cannot get tickets right now because it is so successful.
Jackson's popularity began its decline when the Trail of Tears was added to the national history standards. No context is given to this era, the Cherokee faction that signed a treaty to relocate, that Jackson thought the only way Native American culture could survive was to separate it from whites. Not defending everything Jackson did or how he did it, but the simplistic view given to school kids make Jackson more of a villain than he was.
Trump supported Niki Haley's attack on the Confederate Battle Flag in South Carolina. He also stated that the CBF should taken down everywhere except in museums.
Watch, ....he'll bend to every PC issue as POTUS.
Yes , I understand that there is an almost 4 year waiting list for tickets.
This demonstrates how shallow this request is to change our currency - part of the Mubama legacy- to create history that fits their agenda.
If the play was not as successful, this move to change the currency face from Hamilton probably would have succeeded.
The musical play uses rap (of which I am NOT an adherent) to tell history.
The current administration and Common Core wants to rewrite history to fit their agenda .
Those who forget their history are destined to repeat their history - that is my concern.
I’m sure Charlie rangle will push a bill for AL jolsen day.
“His dad, “
Martin Luther King Sr?
Nope. Two uses of imply:
1) When someone is trying to get you to infer something. In this case, I refer to the inference of a reader, not the implication of an author.
2) When a conclusion is logically necessary. In this case, the inference may be reasonably, but is not logically required by the data presented.
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