Lies My Teacher Told Me

All history comes with contradictions. With every moment in history comes a corresponding moment which can take the accuracy and understanding and change them forever. Throughout time people add small pieces of information to great events in our past. This is where we get the misinterpretation of history. In chapter five of the book Lies My Teacher Told Me, these contradictions are brought into light and force us to look at them again. As I have learned in my history courses we can always question the accuracy of a story but we may never fully understand the truth. There have been three important times I have been through that have shaped my understanding of history today, specifically the part of history dealing with slavery and racism.
The first, and most prominent would be the history classes I had to take in high school. It was a very touch and go kind of subject. Textbooks don't want to tell too much about racism, and teachers would love nothing more than to avoid it as much as possible (at least mine did). I was told "Slavery and racism are bad. It was a bad point in America's history, but it helped us get to where we are now." Never in my life would I be told that President Jefferson, who assures that everyone has an equal right to "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness", enslaved nearly 200 people at the time he spoke those words (Loewen 147). Now, since I was told very little about slavery, this fact shocked me quite a bit. The last thing to come to my mind when I think of presidents is slave owning. I remember in elementary school, doing projects on our previous presidents. Although, the requirements for the projects were for the sole reason of finding out every great act they did for the country, not about the...

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...We are such friendly people. But if we are told that people as high up as presidents are allowed to be racist and own slaves back then, what is stopping average person in todays world to make slightly racial comments/gestures?
Overall, the experiences that you lead in life will affect how you take in what Loewen is telling you. If I would have had just my history classes that taught me about slavery and racism, my mind would have been blown at all the information he shares. Since I was able to really see some of the events that happened as a repercussion to what he discussed, I was able to rationalize the chapter as I was reading it. I also think my high school experience helped view both sides of the story as well.

Works Cited

Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. Print.