How we see the past reflects how we live in the present

Our history involves both hard facts and interpretation – the context in which the hard facts are presented

Interpretation inevitably is political and contested. How we see the past reflects how we live in the present and what we hope for in the future.

That’s what makes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ efforts to impose a new curriculum for public school instruction on African American history both revealing and repellant. A furor has grown about the new state guidelines for the history of slavery, which call for students to learn that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Depicting slavery as a jobs training program and a civilizing mission for the Africans who were enslaved has long been a central theme of those seeking to justify slavery. The ugly reality, of course, is that Africans were brought here in chains against their will and were bought and sold as chattel. They had no choice in what work they did or how they lived. The vast majority died in slavery. In the 1857 Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney ruled for the Supreme Court – in what is viewed as the worst decision in history – that enslaved people were not citizens of the United States and had no rights under the federal government.