I've been reading James Loewen's book, Lies My Teacher Told Me. My son gave this book to me before I retired. I've only begun reading it more carefully and it's painful reading.
I got through the Christopher Columbus myth and it shook me up. I knew some of that history. The Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria, etc. I knew he wasn't the first discoverer. I did teach my class that the Norse actually were there before him.
But then there's a whole lot more that textbooks wouldn't touch... what he did after that. He was in this for gold, slaves and riches. Columbus carefully documented all his travels so it's apparently all there to see the cruelty of how native girls of 8 and 9 were given as sex slaves to his lieutenants, how natives who did not regularly produce gold for him had their noses, ears or hands chopped off, and on and on.
"Estimates of Haiti's pre-Columbian population range as high as 8,000,000 people. When Christopher Columbus returned to Spain, he left his brother Bartholomew in charge of the island. Bartholomew took a census of Indian adults in 1496 and came up with 1,100,000." If you count the children, the estimate would probably be more like 3,000,000 but it's still horrendous. Natives were also often killed for sport.
I won't go on further about all the horrible things that were done to the native people here. The Spanish killed and enslaved thousands...millions of natives and considered it their Christian God-given right.
I'm now reading about that first Thanksgiving.... sigh....
I do think all teachers should read this book.
We often talk about how other countries give their citizens misinformation... brainwashing, etc. I'm afraid, we do, too. Oh yes, we do, too.
The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver is also disturbing, Kay, when it shows the US's actions in Africa. And when I was in school, there was absolutely no mention of Japanese internment camps in either the US or Canada.
ReplyDeleteThat book sounds really interesting. Will have to look into that. Sometimes it´s good to face the truth.
ReplyDeleteHorrible! Awful! That book would disturb me...
ReplyDeleteI always loved digging deeper into history, and some of the things to be found there are amazing, inspiring, and brutal by turns. As many wonderful stories as horrible turn up, and you have to wonder why some was forgotten and others celebrated---beyond the obvious fact that winners write the history.
ReplyDeleteKay, I never knew these brutal facts...horrible. I was taught that the Indians didn't make good slaves (they died out), so that's why the British brought the Africans over.
ReplyDeleteLove that you're back Kay.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that I will read this book. The morning newspapaer is full of bad truths as is the history of every country. I guess Susan's right that the winners are the ones that write the History books!
Wow, those are some horrible truths in that book. I too, just now, am all of a sudden interested in history. I usually watch the History channel, rather than books. I hate that we praise Columbus for discovering America, when it is an untruth, and because of his cruel ways.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful new picture on your page!
Very eye opening, huh? I knew he brought venereal disease here, too. We tend to overlook the bad things we know about people who are historical icons, like Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ted Kennedy,...the list goes on and on. I guess we just want to think about the good in people and the good they accomplished.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I left you an award on my blog!
I too read the Poisonwood Bible... Everyone thinks they are right and we would all be better off it we adopted their beliefs... We need to learn to value everyone's beliefs..
ReplyDeleteI was aware of the fact that Columbus was a thug, but I'm thinking that I didn't know the extent of his cruelty. Wouldn't it be great to rename the holiday?? What should we call it?
ReplyDeleteThe education of our children - most particularly in our own history - is sadly lacking. That's for sure.
ReplyDeleteOn a somewhat lighter side, my own 6th grade teacher taught us that there is no such thing as the moon. She said it was only a reflection of the sun. I believed that for quite a while.
Having been a teacher, I was and continue to be appalled at the sheer garbage the is so frequently taught in schools and how our many heroes questionable pasts have been smoothed over or changed completely to make them "heroes". I will get this book and read it. I have heard of Kingsolver's book as well and I'm going to get it, too.
ReplyDeleteA great post, Kay, sad though it is. We all need to face to truth and hopefully -- as the saying goes the truth will set us free -- free of the lies we were taught!
Sylvia
that's history but the truth..how sad..
ReplyDeletewell there's brainwashing and selective history...i don't think we want to burden kids with all the details of man's inhumanity to man. they would grow up too negative and with little hope. but that's my opinion.
ReplyDeleteKay, I am pleased to tell you that the last set of History books I taught out of contain the horrific details of the history of the Americas. I am very sad to tell you that they are not given in context, but are written to shock and appall.
ReplyDeleteI think history should be written in a factual manner and those reading about it should be left to make their own moral judgments -- not because I think the horrors pardonable, but because morals, values, thoughts and beliefs are evolutionary. A couple hundred years from now people are going to find us barbaric.
Oh, and as to renaming the holiday -- how about Discover's Day?
ReplyDeleteWow, Kay. You opened a can of worms. I haven't heard of this book, and was not aware of the extent of the atrocities. But I immediately thought of the conservative Americans who would call you, and anyone who agreed with this book, America haters. Every Thanksgiving now we have a bruhaha here over the different versions of the Thanksgiving story. If a teacher wants to tell it from the Indian point of view she/he is being unpatriotic, a revisionist, even a traitor. It will take a long time to undo the legends of old and open our eyes to the truth.
ReplyDeleteKay, growing up the history we learned from the elders was rarely the history written in books. But, as the saying goes, 'History is recorded by the victorious.'
ReplyDeleteWithin a century of Columbus' 1st arrival, over 90% of the population total of Indigenous Peoples in the Americas was wiped out. Mostly by diseases that my ancestors had little or no history of being exposed to.
It's good to see that the school books are coming to grips with
the truer history of The Americas, Africa, Polynesia, Asia, & Australia. And some of the mistakes made in dealing with Ireland, The Balkans, Middle East, & other former colonized areas are just now starting to bear bitter fruit which has to be dealt with
I just have to say that I don't believe we need to depress the kids with the cruelty man perpetuates on his brothers and sisters but let's not hero worship those who don't deserve it and white wash the horrors that have been inflicted.
ReplyDeleteWe should teach facts appropriate to the grade level. I also don't think we need wait 200 years to find ourselves being thought barbaric. We've got too many cases of that right now.
I think history has to be taught correctly so that we can learn from it. Yes... maybe the truth can set us free.
I just checked my calendar and you're right, Quilly. Columbus Day has been changed to Discoverer's Day.
I came up with this information on my own, Kay, and wrote some about it in one of my books, Buffalo and Indians. I have also published some of it on one of my blogs and it goes back farther than Columbus to the Catholics of Spain and the same thing happened to every Native American tribe or people they met here. I say Catholics because what they did is beyond religion but it was sanctioned by the church.
ReplyDeleteKay, I had never heard of this book, but you have peaked my interest! I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI was completely unaware of these facts...want to know more about it.
ReplyDeleteSherri, did your teacher tell you to spell "picqued" that way?
ReplyDelete(Naughty Teacher)
Ummmm... Steve?
ReplyDeleteIsn't that spelled "piqued?"
:-)
I'm becoming careless in my old age! Piqued it is! (This is a word us blue-collar types use on no more than a couple of occassions in a lifetime)
ReplyDeleteMy English teacher is not responsible for the sticky "backspace" key.
I take my hat off to people who used typewriters, where once a key is hit it had better be the correct one, as there was no such facility to correct errors.
The true history is depressing.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Kay, yes, there's a lot of misinformation out there. Hollywood gave us a lot of it too. Interesting book. I am going to look for it next time I go to the bookstore.
ReplyDeleteIt would bother me to read that book, but hiding my head in the sand won't make it go away. I'll have to check that out. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete