Posted on 10/20/2010 8:19:20 AM PDT by Palter
A textbook distributed to Virginia fourth-graders says that thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War -- a claim rejected by most historians but often made by groups seeking to play down slavery's role as a cause of the conflict.
The passage appears in "Our Virginia: Past and Present," which was distributed in the state's public elementary schools for the first time last month. The author, Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian but has written several books, said she found the information about black Confederate soldiers primarily through Internet research, which turned up work by members of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Scholars are nearly unanimous in calling these accounts of black Confederate soldiers a misrepresentation of history. Virginia education officials, after being told by The Washington Post of the issues related to the textbook, said that the vetting of the book was flawed and that they will contact school districts across the state to caution them against teaching the passage.
"Just because a book is approved doesn't mean the Department of Education endorses every sentence," said spokesman Charles Pyle. He also called the book's assertion about black Confederate soldiers "outside mainstream Civil War scholarship."
Masoff defended her work. "As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write," she said. "I am a fairly respected writer."
The issues first came to light after College of William & Mary historian Carol Sheriff opened her daughter's copy of "Our Virginia" and saw the reference to black Confederate soldiers.
"It's disconcerting that the next generation is being taught history based on an unfounded claim instead of accepted scholarship," Sheriff said. "It concerns me not just as a professional historian but as a parent."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And the e-zine rocks!
Any freeper spending any time on a Civil War thread knows who the usual suspects are.
I'm sure it does. Sign me up.
“Many slaves did serve the Confederacy” You seem to think that all blacks were slaves. There were a lot of free black business owners in New Orleans when it was attacked by Union forces. They defended the city against General Butler, who eventually captured and occupied New Orleans. But they tried valiantly to defend their city.
If you want.
Once again, fabrications and non-sequiturs Nancy dearie.
Any statement that the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, organized as a Louisiana State Militia Unit and accepted for service by the Governor, changed sides en masse is FALSE. The fantasy that the United States colored troops were 188,000 Black soldiers” when their ranks also held the Hispanic, Native Peoples, and other non-whites who were not allowed to serve in the ranks of the segregated Union Army is also typical of rewritten history.
According to the records of the Union Army, General Butler’s own memoirs, and the recently-published diary of Col. Banks, Commanding Officer of the 2nd Louisiana Native Guard, only six of twenty-six Confederate Native Guard officers accepted Union service (and were driven out of service within a few months), while less than ten percent of the rank-and-file of the Confederate 1st Louisiana accepted Union service.
That only twenty-three percent of the officers and less than ten percent of the enlisted men of the 1st Louisiana Native Guard switched sides is ample evidence that there was little enthusiasm for the offer made by Butler.
The 1st Louisiana Native Guard, CSA, can trace its origins to the Louisiana Battalion of Free Men of Color who served under Jackson in the War of 1812 and whose officers were the first Black military officers in U.S. history.
Hey, I like stuff that rocks! Sign me up too please.
“Many slaves did serve the Confederacy You seem to think that all blacks were slaves.”
I never said that. Never insinuated it. It’s sad that so many of you put words in other people’s mouths.
Just freepmail me your name and email address or send an email to thestainlessbanner@gmail.com
Ah, I see that half-day kindergarden has let out in Florida.
Any statement that the 1st Louisiana Native Guard, organized as a Louisiana State Militia Unit and accepted for service by the Governor, changed sides en masse is FALSE.
A correct statement, though given your history it's accuracy was no doubt accidental on your part.
The fantasy that the United States colored troops were 188,000 Black soldiers when their ranks also held the Hispanic, Native Peoples, and other non-whites who were not allowed to serve in the ranks of the segregated Union Army is also typical of rewritten history.
And that is pure fantasy. Ely Parker is an example of a full-blooded Seneca who not only did not serve in a segregated regiment but was acually a high-ranking officer. The Union army recruited several regiments of Cherokee, Creek and Choctaw and, like the confederate army, they were organized into their own regiments - the 1st through 4th Indian Home Guard, USV. As for Hispanics, your claim is pure nonsense. There is evidence of a number of Hispanics serving throughout the Union Army. Julius Peter Garesché was a Cuban lieutenant colonel and member of Rosecran's staff killed at Stone's River. Miguel E. Pino was a colonel and commanded the 2nd New Mexico at Valverde and Glorioso Pass. Federico Fernández Cavada was another Cuban who commanded the 114th Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, his brother was also a Union officer. Alverez de la Mesa was an officer with the 39th New York. And Spanish and Hispanic soldiers served in other regiments. If any of those regiments were USCT, then those men were with those units by choice.
The 1st Louisiana Native Guard, CSA, can trace its origins to the Louisiana Battalion of Free Men of Color who served under Jackson in the War of 1812 and whose officers were the first Black military officers in U.S. history.
But can trace no actice service with the confederate army because, after all, they were still Men of Color and that wasn't allowed as soldiers in the csa.
Louisiana was an anomaly compared to the rest of the south. Under the French (and to a lesser extent Spanish) influence, the children of white fathers and slave mothers were far more likely to be acknowledged and to inherit property. But even generations removed from that racial mixing--quadroons, octaroons, etc.--these Creoles were still counted as black. This is why New Orleans alone seems to have more black slaveowners than much of the rest of the south combined.
Being from North Dakota I aint too educated, so what exactly is “hoy toy”?
Oh. Just another way of saying uppity/gentry I guess.
OH, we just call them Minnesotans, thanks for the cultural clarification!
kindergarten NOT kindergarden dodo.
Hit a sore point, did I? Understandable, since I’m sure kindergarten has covered the best years of your life.
No-mo-joe’s really got you on the ropes now. You probably should just hang it up ;-)
Oh woe is me.
“The younger Ellisons contributed more than farm produce, labor and money to the Confederate cause. On March 27, 1863 John Wilson Buckner, William Ellison’s oldest grandson, enlisted in the 1st South Carolina Artillery. Buckner served in the company of Captains P.P. Galliard and A.H. Boykin, local white men who knew that Buckner was a Negro. Although it was illegal at the time for a Negro to formally join the Confederate forces, the Ellison family’s prestige nullified the law in the minds of Buckner’s comrades. Buckner was wounded in action on July 12, 1863. At his funeral in Stateburg in August, 1895 he was praised by his former Confederate officers as being a “faithful soldier.””
DIXIE’S CENSORED SUBJECT
BLACK SLAVEOWNERS
By Robert M. Grooms
© 1997
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