Pickled History

When pundits, politicians and poseurs complain about "erasing history," particularly to do with dismantling Richmond's Confederate memorials, what in the world do they mean?

Are they really suggesting that most folks will simply ignore Stonewall Jackson's contributions to history, such as they were, because his equestrian statue on a plinth no longer looms over a busy traffic intersection?

Likewise, when some Virginians say they want history to be taught today, just as it used to be taught in the Commonwealth during their youth," are they talking about the teaching of verifiable truth or warmed-over propaganda? It seems the current brouhaha over Critical Race Theory is mostly about trying, once again, to perpetuate a version of the past that never existed.

Most of my life has been spent living in Richmond's Fan District, which used to be home to four statues on pedestals honoring heroes of the Confederacy. During last summer's statue purge three of them were removed from their pedestals -- Jackson, JEB Stuart and Jefferson Davis. With its now famous, graffiti-covered base, the mammoth Robert E. Lee Monument's fate is still tied up in court. 

To know what it was like in Richmond in the past, we look to old stories handed down, discussions with family and associates, popular culture sources, schooling from lectures and books, etc. Speaking of local history, now I’d like to better understand the slave market business that once thrived in my home town. Until the baseball stadium controversy put a spotlight on that evil truth, most Richmonders I know had no idea how significant that market was before the Civil War. Since that particular aspect of Shockoe Bottom's gnarly history seems to have been rather effectively covered up for generations, wouldn't it be useful to know more the burial of that story?

Accordingly, isn't it about time to shine a new light on how our history books were cooked in the 20th century. A fresh and thorough look needs to be taken at how the truth was systematically processed into Lost Cause fantasies. 

For instance, in 1961, my seventh-grade history book, which was used in all of Virginia's public schools, had this to say at the end of Chapter 29:

Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy. The Negroes went about in a cheerful manner making a living for themselves and for those whom they worked. They were not so unhappy as some Northerners thought they were, nor were they so happy as some Southerners claimed. The Negroes had their problems and their troubles. But they were not worried by the furious arguments going on between Northerners and Southerners over what should be done with them. In fact, they paid little attention to those arguments.

Well, in 1961, I had no reason to question that paragraph’s veracity. Baseball was my No. 1 concern in those days. Now, of course, those words of pickled history read quite differently than they did 60 years ago. 

Living through the struggles of the Civil Rights Era, with its bombings, assassinations, marches, sit-ins, boycotts and school-closings, did much to open my mind, to do with reality and fairness about racism. 

However, for me, there was no moment of epiphany, no sudden awareness of how I was growing up in a part of the world that officially denied significant aspects of its past. More than anything else, it took time. Life experience taught me to seek out credible sources and to look more deeply into things, in general.

In 2021, I know that old history book, crafted in the early-1950s by malleable "historians," hired and directed by the General Assembly, was an other essential cog in the machinery that maintained the Jim Crow Era. And since that same history book was used for a long time, that made sure yet another whole generation of Virginians was subjected to what was a traditional, systematic torturing of the truth about the institution of slavery, causes of the Civil War, its aftermath, etc.

Yet, while the aforementioned Virginia history book has been retired, along with other foolish throwback movements, now there are mischievous calls for once again teaching pickled history. Let's make damn sure that isn't done. 

Moreover, regardless of what has been done in the past, it’s our civic duty today to do the right thing in our time. In 2021, Richmonders of all political persuasions should find a way to band together to put truth itself on a pedestal.

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