In James Loewen’S Book, Lies My Teacher Told Me, He Talks

Though slavery is taught throughout ones education, the severeness of it isn’t usually explained how the documentary Africans in America: The Terrible Transformation explains it. Throughout school, students typically don’t examine how the racial prejudice that was associated with slavery was horrific in so many different ways. This documentary allows viewers to be

When speaking of the Cold War one can envision the “McCarthism” under Truman that had entrenched the U.S. in a very mean spirited paranoia that blossomed into fear and irrational thought. This illusion of “potentially disloyal” was swallowed by many and created a, as William Touponce put it, “mass culture” that Bradbury could not stomach. This theme of distrust in the majority

The United States of America has historical events that underlie the primary example of a country which overcomes every adversity with courage and commitment. Several pieces of history can obviously emphasize the strength of those who inhabited this nation and shaped it into what it is today; one of which is the era of slavery. Slavery is a topic that is often rejected during the mentioning of historical events in America primarily due to the fact that it contradicts what American culture advocates. When attempting to reprimand their previous discriminatory actions towards African Americans, many Americans often fail to realize the impact that African Americans truly had on this country. Without slavery, as inauspicious as the idea may sound, the framework of America would have not been established, its populational growth would not have been as rapid, and the amount of labor that induced economic and military success would be nearly impossible, thus leading to the conclusion that America would not have excelled without slavery.

In an idealistic democratic America, one likes to think that everyone is free and everyone is equal. However, this is not the complete truth; we still battle injustice and work to treat everyone fairly every single day. But what is the truth is that we have come a long way and that we have improved over time. Slavery before the Civil War is important in U.S. history because not only was it involved in various significant events; it also shows us how far our society has come.

The history of slavery in the United States divided people by the color of their skin. During the 16th thru 18th century, people of African ethnicity were automatically considered slaves. This not only created a parceling between races but also the demarcation of the northern and southern states of the America. The northern states had asseverated their opposition of slavery while the southern states upheld their concordance with it. Although there is now an overwhelming agreement that slavery was fallacious, Paul Finkelman’s composition of documents called Defending Slavery displays the opposite.

The matter of slavery is one that has plagued humanity for the horrors it has committed. Despite the fact that most Americans look down at the south's shameful past of slavery, it is known that history is written by the victors, and that we must critically judge the north for the treatment of its workers like historians have judged the south in order to gain a better understanding of the situation.

Slavery is a contradictory subject in American history because “one hears…of the staid and gentle patriarchy, the wide and sleepy plantations with lord and retainers, ease and happiness; [while] on the other hand on hears of barbarous cruelty and unbridles power and wide oppression of men” (Dubois 2). Dubois’s The Negro in the United States is an autoethnographic text which is a representation “that the so-defined others

As stated in the subtitle, Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen is about what American history textbooks get wrong. As a rule people assume when reading textbooks they are getting raw facts, but that is not the case. Lies My Teacher Told Me really enlightens readers about how corrupt and biased textbook authors truly are. Loewen’s thesis is that textbook authors sugar coat and white wash history while trying to make America and it’s leaders look perfect on their pedestals. Loewen said “Textbooks have trouble acknowledging that anything might be wrong with white Americans or with the United States as a whole”(p.142). Throughout the book he defends this with many viable examples. Most students are told many romanticized myths about the “first

Slavery was one of the principal reasons for America gaining its financial independence, and it grew steadily up to the moment it was abolished by war. According to the Library of Congress (n.d.) the number of slaves grew from 700,000 slaves in 1790 to more than 2 million by 1830 and on the eve of the Civil War there were nearly 4 million slaves. Not only did America experience a shift in numbers doing the years of slavery but also a shift in the overall American mindset as well as the culture of the African American. With slaves having been separated from their homes families and cultures they began to merge their traditions and beliefs systems with those of the Masters while attempting to define themselves as African Americans. In the following essay I will discuss and analyze this shift in terms of slavery in the south, blacks in the north and the overall American shifts leading to the Civil War.

All history textbooks should be written in manner of bringing knowledge about the past to the reader in a realistic way in which it discuses the accomplishment and downfall America had taken part in. However, in reality majority of the history textbooks cover up the truth and present biased information to the reader’s. This is an issue because it does not benefit the reader knowledge nor does it inspire them to learn about the past. Although, some of the information provide in the text, it allows the reader’s to believe in false information to make America seem superior and as if they had not taken part in any failure. More importantly, textbooks have a duty to present accurate information to allow the readers to appreciate the

Throughout history society has been plagued with cruel and unethical actions, slavery being one of the most commonly known and discussed today. The reasons behind these heinous acts are often argued, yet ideas such as society,social class, government and religion are most commonly refuted as their prominent cause. Although society and social standing could have been to blame for the cruel act of slavery government and religion were truly the driving factors, government allowed slavery since it’s creation, religion was twisted into giving an illusion act slavery was ok, these ways were around for so long that changing them were almost impossible.

As I sat in my 5th grade history class, I looked on perceptively at Mr. Tuckwiller as he presented one of his passionate lectures about slavery. While everyone else in the class was fiddling with their pencils, erasers, or whatever inanimate object they could lay their hands on, I glared straight into Mr. T’s giving him my full attention but at the same time making me his first victim during the cold calling session. “Aditya, what invention in your opinion most led to the growing population of slavery in the south during the 1800s?,” Mr. T. asked. Let’s just say that I wasn’t actually ready for

Accordingly, harsh punishments were enacted if anyone was caught teaching a slave how to read. In turn, slave owners created a society where “It was dangerous to educate slaves” because “education made blacks dissatisfied with slavery” (236). This illustrates the immense power of knowledge as only an educated slave could discover an alternate world to slavery, which is exemplified with the use of the word “dissatisfied”. Slave owners recognize this power by ruthlessly attempting to keep the value of education away from their slaves despite their physical control over them. In addition, it was considered “dangerous to keep a [educated] slave” as they might “run away and [you would] lose your investment” manifesting the idea that only barrier standing in the way of slave from freedom is education (80). This illuminates that the power that emanates from the “whip” can’t suppress an educated slave as it exclusively relies on fear, but once educated there no longer exists the reason to fear. Moreover, the slave owners fear that they would lose their “investment”, portraying the idea that the slave owners can’t control their slaves through physical power. For example, Margaret and her husband “resent [Dana]” due to their “[lack of] education”, which is why “educated slaves aren’t popular” (80). Thus, Tom Weylin only despises educated slaves because of their threat to his authority emphasizing how education superior to the

Education during slavery was forbidden, because slave masters feared that the slaves would become smart enough and they would have another Nat Turner Slave Rebellion throughout the country, specifically the south. The lighter skinned slaves were taught how to read and write while the darker skinned slaves were out in the fields,getting no form of education. Not only did this concept make the darker slaves feel even more lesser of themselves, but it also started a self-fulfilling prophecy that is still very present today. In 1712, the infamous William Lynch delivered a speech on the banks of the James River in the colony of Virginia, named, “The Making Of A Slave.” Throughout this letter, Lynch conveys that he has a plan that will control the slaves and it will last for up to 300 years.He discusses, separating the slaves by intelligence, age, sex, size of plantations, status on plantation, fine hair and coarse hair, or if tall or short. By making these differences present, William Lynch quickly created an imperfect social class amongst the black slaves and black community. In today’s society, excerpts from the infamous, William Lynch’s “The Making Of A Slave” speech are still very prominent in today’s society. According to, Erin Winkler, the author of, “Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race”, “psychological researchers suggests that children, in fact do recognize race from a very young age, but also develop racial biases by ages three to five that don’t necessarily resemble the racial attitudes of adults in their lives.” This just proves that even if some children of color aren’t necessarily taught that light skin may be better or dark skin is ugly, they notice the difference between the two shades at a young age and what adults say to or around their children, do have an affect on the way their children think. In the black community, many but not all,

38.8 percent of people surveyed said that the comparisons that they had heard between America and 1984 and Brave New World have had no effect on their perception of their government, and 61.2 percent of people surveyed said that their perception was negatively affected by the comparisons (Appendix A). This suggests that these comparisons do not have an extremely strong impact on Americans’ perception of the government. In all of the articles previously mentioned, the authors used inflammatory and angry diction to try to push their opinions onto the reader, which suggested that the survey results should show that a lot more people would have their perceptions negatively affected by these comparisons, but the results showed otherwise, demonstrating the extent to which comparisons to either novel are relatively ineffective political rhetoric.