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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTexas Students Will Soon Learn Slavery Played A Central Role In The Civil War
November 16, 2018 5:38 PM ET
CAMILLE PHILLIPS
Abraham Lincoln is shown in Richmond, Va., being cheered by former slaves in 1865.
Culture Club/Getty Images
Texas' Board of Education voted Friday to change the way its students learn about the Civil War. Beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, students will be taught that slavery played a "central role" in the war.
The state's previous social studies standards listed three causes for the Civil War: sectionalism, states' rights and slavery, in that order. In September, the board's Democrats proposed listing slavery as the only cause.
"What the use of 'states' rights' is doing is essentially blanketing, or skirting, the real foundational issue, which is slavery," Democratic board member Marisa Perez-Diaz, from San Antonio, said at a Tuesday board meeting.
Republican board member David Bradley, from Beaumont, argued for keeping the other causes in the curriculum. He said, "Each state had differences and made individual decisions as to whether or not to join into the conflict, correct? I mean, that's the definition of states' rights."
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More at link.
Blue_true
(31,261 posts)LeftInTX
(25,224 posts)eppur_se_muova
(36,257 posts)ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)As I recall, states' rights was taught as the main cause of the Civil War. I think this affects a few generations' understanding of the war. It's just incredible it took this long to admit the truth to children.
eppur_se_muova
(36,257 posts)... so Southerners couldn't buy cheap British crap instead of expensive Yankee crap. States rights and tariffs on foreign goods. Oh, and especially that right to hold slaves. That was in there somewhere.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)States' rights go hand in hand with that.
eppur_se_muova
(36,257 posts)I actually saw that on a display at the first college I worked for -- still considered funny* in 1999.
* Republican funny, that is. Not the same.
RainCaster
(10,857 posts)It's not a big revelation
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,318 posts)All of the seceding states declared slavery as the cause.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/what-this-cruel-war-was-over/396482/
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/primary-sources/declaration-causes-seceding-states
cagefreesoylentgreen
(838 posts)Now they need to include slavery as a central issue that lead to the Battle of the Alamo.
(Who am I kidding? Itll never happen. )