We have an op-ed today at CNN.com on how to understand the relationship of the North to slavery and race on the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War.

The essay, written by Executive Director Katrina Browne and Managing Director James DeWolf Perry, builds on our ongoing work around the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and the enduring historical myths which blind us to the legacy of slavery and race today.

Here is how the op-ed begins:

This week marks the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War, a war that redefined national and regional identities and became an enduring tale of noble resistance in the South and, for the rest of the country, a mighty moral struggle to erase the stain of slavery.

On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces opened fire on the beleaguered Union garrison at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. By April 14, the fort had fallen and the war had begun in earnest.

By the time Fort Sumter was again in Union hands, following the evacuation of Charleston in the closing days of the war in 1865, the war had become the bloodiest in the nation’s history — and has not been surpassed. Yet the relationship of the North to the South, and to slavery before and during the war is not at all what we remember today. The reality is that both North and South were profoundly complicit in slavery and deeply reluctant to abolish our nation’s “peculiar institution.”

To read the full article, go to “Civil War’s dirty secret about slavery” at CNN.com.

South Carolina’s “Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union,” adopted by the state legislature on December 24, 1860, mentions the word “slave” 18 times.  The following passage (emphasis added) from the document clearly makes the case for secession due to the fact that the Federal Government encroached on their rights to own slaves.
(more…)

This December, the Independence National Historical Park (INHP) opens its new exhibit at the President’s House – site of the residence of George Washington and John Adams while the capital was in Philadelphia.

The exhibit, which consists of a partial reconstruction of the house along with text panels, features information about how Presidents George Washington and John Adams lived and conducted their executive branch business. Washington brought some of his slaves to this site and they lived and toiled with other members of his household during the years that our first president was guiding the experimental development of the young nation toward modern, republican government.  The lives of the enslaved members of Washington’s household are commemorated at the site.

Last spring, the committee leading the exhibit development afforded Tracing Center staff the great honor of commenting on the final draft of the exhibit text.  Tracing Center staff also conducted a training session about the history of slavery in the North for INHP Interpretive Rangers and staff.  For more information visit Independence National Historical Park’s President’s House website.

Historian Joanne Pope Melish will speak tonight in the Boston area about New England’s amnesia regarding the region’s role in slavery and its consequences for the development of racial attitudes over the generations.

Joanne is a noted expert on northern slavery and the process of gradual emancipation in New England, and is the author of Disowning Slavery: Gradual Emancipation and Race in New England, 1780-1860. She has frequently worked with the Tracing Center on its programming around issues of slavery and race, and is featured at our fall teacher workshops in Michigan and Rhode Island.

The talk, “The Worm in the Apple: Slavery, Emancipation, and Race in New England,” will take place at 7:00pm at Myrtle Baptist Church, 21 Curve Street, Newton. The program is sponsored by Historic Newton as part of their outstanding lecture series, “Encountering Slavery and Race in New England.”

Christie Gibson is a staff member at the Tracing Center and regularly posts material intended to raise awareness and stimulate discussion related to the history of slavery and anti-racism. This content reflects the views of the respective authors and not necessarily those of the Tracing Center or its staff.

The National Park Service at Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia is working with the City of Philadelphia and community partners to improve the interpretation of the slave quarters at the President’s House, home to George Washington and John Adams in the 1790s.  For more information, check out their site.

Tom DeWolf is a regular guest contributor and the author of Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave-Trading Dynasty in U.S. History. This entry is cross-posted from Tom’s blog, and the opinions expressed are his own.

We are a Christian nation founded on Christian principles. The way I evaluate history textbooks is first I see how they cover Christianity and Israel. Then I see how they treat Ronald Reagan — he needs to get credit for saving the world from communism and for the good economy over the last 20 years because he lowered taxes.

— Dr. Don McLeroy, chairman of the Texas Board of Education

One of the goals of those involved with Coming to the Table and Traces of the Trade/Inheriting the Trade is to rewrite history. More accurately stated, we are committed to supporting efforts to update school curricula to include all of the rich stories throughout our history that went into the making of the United States; many of which have been hidden and/or buried–the result of which has been that many generations of students have been given a false picture of our nation’s history, and consequently, a false picture of who we are today.

(more…)

James DeWolf Perry is a regular guest contributor. He appears in the film Traces of the Trade and is the Tracing Center’s director of research. This entry originally appeared on James’ own blog, The Living Consequences, and the opinions expressed are his own.

Slavery in New England was brutal and lasted, in its official form, for 150 years. Enslavement greatly enriched the colonists and, later, citizens of New England, and only died out gradually and fitfully.

This is the proposition of an op-ed appearing in tomorrow’s Boston Globe, entitled “New England’s scarlet ‘S’ for slavery,” in honor of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The op-ed suggests that the northern states lag behind the South in acknowledging the difficult truths of race buried in our past, and that we cannot skip this step if we are to make progress on race relations.

The essay is written by C. S. Manegold, who is the author of Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North (2009), published last month by Princeton University Press.

(more…)