“Lies My Teacher Told Me”
Chapter SixJohn Brown and Abraham
Lincoln
The Invisibility of Anti-Racism in
American History Textbooks
The Invisibility of Anti-Racism
• “We hold
these truths
to be selfevident, that
all men are
created
equal…”Jefferson
Ordinary men that stood up
and fought to protect those
words are often invisible in
our history textbooks.
John Brown and Abraham
Lincoln are remembered as a
crazy person and honest Abe
Their struggles for equality
are either down-played or
never portrayed
Loewen’s Argument on How
Brown is Represented in Text
Brown is only mentioned in relationship to
Pottawatomie, Kansas and Harpers Ferry.
Brown’s action in Pottawatomie is portrayed as
retaliation, revenge and retribution.
History textbook presents Brown as “almost
certainly insane, mentally ill, probably of unsound
mind, and crackbrained.”
There is no sympathy for him nor is there anything
that explain why brown is a hero to so many slaves
and abolitionists
Loewen’s view on Brown insanity
• “No one who knew Brown thought him
crazy.”
• After Brown’s capture, Governor Wise of
Virginia called Brown “ a man of clear
head…quick and clear perception.”
• “We must recognize that the insanity with
which historians have charged John
Brown was never psychological. It was
ideological.
Brown’s Death
• “These men, in teaching us how to die,
have at the same time taught us how to
live.”
• “Brown’s Willingness to go to the gallows
for what he thought was right had a moral
force of its own”
• Textbooks neglect to mention the
significant of his death and the reaction
Brown and his religion
• Brown is a religious man and well read in Bible,
However, textbooks do not credit him with it and
blame his action as a God’s command.
• “Believing himself commanded by God to free
the slaves, Brown came up with a scheme...”
• Brown thought deeply about the moral meaning
of Christianity and decided that slavery was
incompatible with it. Textbooks do not mention
any part of his moral reasoning
Our research on Brown
• Insane?
• Isolated?
– Contact with other Abolistionists
– His 20 men
• Religion as a moral tool
– Martyr
– Philosophy
• 2 mentions in textbooks
– Patawatomie vs. Osawatomie
– Harper’s Ferry
• Support of slaves
Election of 1860
One textbook talks about
calculated attack vs. snapping
and Brown’s effect on making
slavery a national issue that
couldn’t be ignored.
“Enigma of John Brown”,
America Past to Present, 7th
edition
Holt’s Call to Freedom
“Brown delivered a memorable speech. “It is
unjust that I should suffer such a penalty... I
believe that to have interfered... in behalf of His
despised poor was not wrong, but right. Now, if
it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my
life for the furtherance of the ends of justice,
and mingle
my blood... with the blood of
millions in this slave country whose rights are
disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust
enactments; so let it be done!”
Loewen’s argument on How Lincoln is
represented in Text
• No textbook mention Lincoln’s thundering
summation of what his debates with
Douglas were really about: right and
wrong of slavery.
• Textbooks separate Lincoln from undue
idealism about slavery. They only
emphasize that he saved the Union
• Disconnected Lincoln and the Civil War
from the struggle for equality
Emancipation Proclamation
• Textbooks present the view that Lincoln
did it to gain international support for the
Union
• Textbooks suppress the possibility that
Lincoln acted at least in part because he
thought it was right.
• Avoid the question of what is right and
what is wrong
Lincoln’s Speech
• The Gettysburg Address is one the most
important speech for Lincoln as he
reminded the nation that they were in a
war to fight for equality, freedom and The
rights of all people.
• “Five books do not even mention the
speech…”
• Most textbooks skip the significant of the
speech
Downplay of Slavery as the Central
Ideology of Civil War
• White Southerners founded the
Confederacy on the ideology of white
supremacy
• Throughout the war, “The protection of
slavery had been and still remained the
central core of Confederate purpose.”
• Textbooks downplay all this, probably
because they do not want to offend white
Southerners today.
Our research on Lincoln
• Moderate on slavery?
– “rock solid antislavery beliefs” pg 183 leowin
• Keeping the Union together
– Strategy for winning the war
– Crittenden Compromise Rejected
• Attitudes on race and slavery
• “The real issue is between men who think
slavery is wrong and those who do not think it
wrong.” End of the L-D debate, The American
Republic to 1877
• Assassination
– Conspiracy
– Booth more well known
Contradiction in Ideology
• Ideological confusion vs. ideological strength
– Dred Scot contradicts popular sovereignty
• Holt, L-D debates
• Emancipation Proclamation
– Strategy to win vs. belief in what’s right
– Effect on border states
– “save with not freeing, for all, or some.”
• Three out five mentioned this quote
• Not Lincoln’s personal beliefs
• Confederacy
– States rights vs. white supremacy
– Racist attitudes diminished in North by Black soldiers
– Desertions
Confederate ideals
– Bad morale
– States rights vs. white supremacy
– Racist attitudes were diminishing
• Black soldiers
• Democratic failure in 1864
• “Happy slaves would never revolt.” Pg 193
Emancipation Proclamation
• Presented as a strategy to win vs.
Lincoln’s belief in what’s right
– Effect on border states
• Absentee ballots in MA
– Horace Greely letter
• Three out five mentioned this quote
• Not Lincoln’s personal beliefs
Reconstruction
• Carpetbaggers
– “…were northerners who came south to take
advantage of the economic situations of the
time.” American Republic to 1877
– Even positive depictions are pictures of
epicted white schoolteachers. In Holt
• Scalawags
– .25 to .33 was Republican in South, Leowin
– Two books only give definition
– Political and moral reasons for being
Republican
Even positive depictions can be
problematic
Scalawags
– Complex political and moral reasons for
being Republican
• Miss. Gov. James Alcorn was a former Whig, Holt
– In Creating America, neither term is even
mentioned.
The Ku Klux Klan
• Highly effective terrorists
• Becoming shorthand for the failure of
Reconstruction