When you learned about slavery and segregation in America, was it taught as American history, or more specifically Southern history?

US History. Not being from the South, we didn’t have a Southern History course.

Public schools in the northwest tend to have a northwest history section, and teach about the indigenous people and how we were scumbags to them as we took their land, cheated them and killed them off.

The subject sort of hangs around vaguely in grade school social studies classes. But it was high school American History classes where the subject was more thoroughly explored.

I live in Lexington, Kentucky, and it was taught as American History.

Yes, american history I have always been a history fan, especially the Civil War era.

It was taught in American History—and I lived in Alabama and Florida.

What I do remember clearly was that the textbooks were very divisive: “North = good, South = bad.” As I got older and learned more, particularly from an amazing history teacher in college, I realized it was not that clear-cut. I find it insulting to our collective intelligence that everything was dumbed down to a Good/Bad or Savior/Evil narrative. It’s myopic. The same is true for many other historical narratives…

The North did not enter the war, at first, to emancipate the slaves but to quell a rebellion. There were lynchings in Michigan and Minnesota. Blacks owned slaves in Louisiana. There were white slaves. Many of the soldiers who fought for the South did not own slaves. Do we hear that in school? No—only people who dive deeper into historical studies find this information. I think, if we all were given a more nuanced education that recognizes many different narratives—including those from women, slaves, black slave owners, Northerners, Southerners, soldiers, etc…, history wouldn’t be so boring.

I learned from watching Roots on the tellybox, humble but educational nonetheless.

@linguaphile I was raised in NY and MD and I don’t remember it as being north good south bad.

American history.

US History.

I remember learning in the second grade—in Social Studies. Which is a History/Geography hybrid. Crispus Attucks was the first slave I remember learning about.

I don’t recall learning much about it one way or the other, but then my school district sucked.

@Darth_Algar , have we been classmates? I never had a history class, Whatever history I learned in school was from social studies class, and touched on only briefly. Most of my history lessons came from tv. Thanks, Howard Hughes Foundation, and viewers like you.

^ Oh we had history class. It just never touched on anything in depth and my teacher was an absolutely unqualified idiot who would rather talk about sports than anything actually related to the class.

American history.

I learned before I was taught in school. My dad gave me books like The Underground Railroad, The Peanut Man and Black Like Me before I ever heard anything about it in school.

I read Black Like Me. Stunning read.

US History.
There are always heroes and villains.

a shameful part of american history.

We touched on American History i.e. Civil War in Elementary, Middle and High School. It was always biased according to the text books. The teachers for the most part taught the coursework verbatim. Though I remember in answer to question posed by a student in elementary the teacher said the winners wrote the history books. My high school teacher was the most educational. He went off book went deeper into characters such as Robert E Lee and Ulysses Grant. He also included the presidential motives and the politics involved. He was a monotonous dry man and a boring teacher but he was thorough.

As far as racial divide is concerned. I am still wrapping my head around it. When I was in elementary I thought I knew it all that racism happened decades ago and the people who complained about it as an ongoing problem were overly sympathetic and guilty of the sins of their ancestors or using it as a form of victimhood and away to achieve special considerations.

I now have a bigger grasp. Kids growing up in the projects, active and blatant racism. Parents who fought for their freedoms or experienced but distrusted the change. Who raised their children to distrust and dislike other ethnic groups. The more I learn the less I feel I can fully understand the ongoing impact of slavery and discrimination. Especially since every story is different.

I went to public schools in an era where state history, US history, world history, social studies, and civics were required classes.

We learned about slavery somewhere in those classes. But despite being in school in the sixties, segregation and civil rights issues that were making the nightly news never made it to class.

I haven’t truly understood segregation issues (and the history) for most of my life. The more I’m exposed to that information via modern technology, the more angry I become towards the fuckers who insist on perpetuating it.

Oops. I didn’t mean Ulysses grant I meant Jefferson Davis

I am a history major. I had a great professor who specialized in Southern History so I learned a lot about it (History of the American South, Caribbean History are two that I can think of). I don’t claim to be a history expert or a southern history expert.

What I found interesting about learning History in the classroom is that blacks seem to be ignored except for Crispus Attucks UNTIL it’s time to teach the Civil War. Then they are totally ignored until the Civil Rights Era. It’s like they didn’t exist except in those times.

If I am correct, all school books are approved by a national board of educators, not state educational boards alone, so there are no “Southern approved” history books that cast a positive slant on the Confederate cause over the Federal response to Southern states secession. IMO

@kritiper I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’ve been hearing grumblings for a while about the power of the Texas State School Board, and the changes they’d like to make in new textbooks to accommodate their conservative viewpoints.

In the past Texas has been the biggest purchaser of textbooks, and national publishers have used their preferences to supply books for other states.

Here’s a quick story from the NEA website.

We were only taught American History (ok, Texas History as well! Geez.) We did not get Southern history.

No George Washington Carver, @keobooks?
The only exception I can cite.

Thanks everyone. I worded my original question poorly, in that I didn’t expect anyone to actually have a class called Southern history, but I was wondering if the teacher, or your impression, in history class was that the South was separate in America. When I learned about slavery and segregation I learned it as American history and so growing up I didn’t think of it as though I lived in a different place. Now, as an adult I realize my parents and grandparents had a different experience regarding race than a Southerner did. I’m not saying there wasn’t racism in other parts of the country, but only that it was different.

So, back to the teachers, I wondered if Southern teachers put a slant on things, or Northern teachers, that made students feel the separation in the country. Even when I was taught the Civil War I didn’t identify with having been on the “winning” side as a Northerner. It was all just history for me and I didn’t identify with any of that part of our history.

Some of you did actually answer the question I intended, and I found some of the discussion very interesting.

Thanks everyone.

I never got the impression the south was separate. I mean, as you get older you learn the capitols of all the states, learn about all the states. I don’t remember the south being treated any differently.

When I was a kid, it was never explicit, but very much implied that while there was slavery and segregation in the South, everything was fair and equal in the north during all of history. While I moved a lot, most of the towns I lived in were super majority white. I didn’t know until I was a young adult about the unofficial segregation that still exists up north.

When I was a teen, visiting an aunt in Jacksonville, Florida, the neighbor asked us “Where are you from?” My mom replied “New York” to which the neighbor responded “Yankees!” Mom pointed out that even over 100 years after the Civil War, they’re still calling us Yankees.

I was never given the impression that the South ever had a realistic chance of ceding from the Union. I find that a fair assessment to this day.

I come from a heavily prejudiced small Missouri town and I was never taught any sympathy for the South in school. A battle that was poorly chosen and deservedly lost. I think they probably should have spent a little more energy explaining ‘carpetbaggers’, as it’s pretty shameful what the North allowed, and certainly contributed to the Southern ‘attitude’ problem.