Historic Lies a la DeSantis
by Jack R. Johnson 08.2023
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is facing criticism over his new education guidelines that require students learn that enslaved people benefited from skills they learned while enslaved. Reading this, I remembered an old Virginia history book we used while in the seventh grade. In the opening chapter, entitled, “How The Negro lived under Slavery,” there’s an illustration showing a well-dressed Black family cordially greeted by a white man—presumably their enslaver. The Black family, fresh from an auction, is formally dressed in dark coat and nice shoes, and the male is carrying a satchel, like a fellow businessperson, about to conduct a friendly transaction between peers. The white man places his left hand paternally on the shoulder of the black man, welcoming him to his new home. They shake hands. There are smiles all around. The text, of course, was promoting an old Lost Cause narrative, the myth of the contented slave, something the Florida Educational Board seems intent on doing, but in a less obvious fashion.
To give some idea of where this is headed, the lead historian for the seventh-grade Virginia textbook we used was Francis Simkins, of Longwood College in Farmville, Virginia. In his 1947 book, “The South Old and New,” he makes clear his views on race relations and the South. Essentially, it’s a re-articulation of the Lost Cause narrative with a touch of good, old fashion, colonialist racism. According to Simkins, slavery was “an educational process which transformed the black man from a primitive to a civilized person endowed with conceits, customs, industrial skills, Christian beliefs, and ideals, of the Anglo-Saxon of North America.”
During the Civil War, he writes, enslaved people “remained so loyal to their masters” they were nearly unanimous in their support of the Confederacy. No mention of the hundreds of thousands who fled to the Union lines to fight for the invaders. During Reconstruction, he writes—without irony—that “blacks were aroused to political consciousness not of their own accord but by outside forces.” Spotswood Hunnicutt, a co-author, believed that, as a result of post-bellum interpretations, students were “confused” that “slavery caused a war in 1861.”
If this sounds vaguely familiar, or even contemporary, it’s because many Republicans, foremost, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, are essentially duplicating these efforts in a lower key. Virginia Governor Youngkin has suffered his own public embarrassment in this regard, attempting not one, not two, but three redrafts of history standards that mostly missed the mark by (ah hem) white- washing so much of Reconstruction and Civil War history.
Florida’s new standards have passed muster with a highly conservative legislative body, however. They require that students be taught that some slaves benefitted from slavery, helpfully being trained in fields like blacksmithing, shoe making, fishing, haberdashery, and ironically, teaching. The Tampa Bay Times pointed out that nearly half of the 16 historical figures used by the state as examples of slavery’s benefits were actually never enslaved. Apparently, all historical black people look alike. As Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association teachers union told the Times, “They just threw out a bunch of names to make it seem like something good came of (slavery). The reality of it is, the facts don’t back up what they are saying.”
DeSantis is rightfully facing a firestorm of criticism for this overreach, but I think we should let him have a chance at redemption. This kind of nonsense has been going on for at least three decades and it is clear DeSantis had a poor early education, probably reading something akin to what we were forced to read in the Virginia school system years ago. Luckily, that curriculum has been updated, and I found a suitable lesson plan that uses original source material that he can peruse. Entitled “Frederick Douglass: The Myth of the Happy Slave” it begins by challenging the student to read a short passage from Douglass’s Slave Narrative, which follows:
(trigger warning)
“He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember anything. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it.”
Questions for after class discussion, answer in two or three sentences:
Which skill might Frederick Douglass have learned from this introduction into the institution of slavery?
Would you like to trade places with Frederick Douglass to learn more about the possible benefits of slavery, firsthand?