Racial Bias in Civil War History Term Paper by Writer 08

In this article, the writer discusses that American history has been written in the spirit of white patronage. The writer maintains that certain facts about this country's history have been conveniently forgotten in order to emphasize the glory and righteousness of the white man and the helplessness and in-consequence of the black man. While this may be an unconsciously made decision, it is a decision that has been made nonetheless. The writer points out that in no single event is this idea of white dominance more clear than in the popular mythology surrounding the Civil War. The writer notes that there is no mention in this country's popular history of the North's profit off of slavery during the 1860s, or the region's ambivalence toward newly freed slaves. Further, the writer points out that there is certainly little or no mention of the thousands of black men who served in the Union army, or of the poor treatment that they received at the hands of white officers. The writer concludes that by whitewashing history, by denying blacks their proper place in history, the textbooks and teachers of this and previous eras are teaching the in-consequence of those blacks in their own history.