Arthur C. Donart, Ph.D. wrote this essay.
Certain Republican politicians have sought to re-invent a race strategy, in the fashion of former President Richard Nixon, in order to scare white voters into voting for them. Were it not for that fact, this question about teaching the history of slavery would not have been raised for discussion.
I would like to offer several reasons, why I think teaching our Country’s history of slavery is an important subject and relevant to our world today.
First on my list is safety. For a number of years, I was a member of the Franciscan Sisters committee on Sex Trafficking, a.k.a. Human Trafficking. The Committee had an Education component and an Advocacy component. The Education part was aimed at informing Law Enforcement and prosecutors, about how human traffickers operated [in the Clinton, IA, area] and sought to skirt laws. They provided education for industries, like hospitality, to enable employees to spot potential trafficking. The Education committee informed parents, to help them protect their children.
The Advocacy arm of the Committee sought to ensure that the victims of this “slavery” received the necessary treatment to help rehabilitate them. They advocated for changes in laws, that would make it easier to convict human traffickers. Their motivation was a belief that everyone is born a child of God and must be treated with dignity, respect, and love. You might call them (including myself) modern day “abolitionists.”
Second on my list is avoidance. There has been slavery from the earliest times of humanity. Anyone who bothers to read the Old Testament ought to realize that. Part of the reason for studying history is to understand the mistakes–atrocities, even–made by those who came before us. We must learn from them and evolve in the ways we treat each other.
Re-writing history to suit our political purpose at the time is dangerous. Facts will come back to destroy us. The unpleasant truth of our misdeeds is uncomfortable, but so is life. This is part of being human. Fourth Century bishop Augustine of Hypo, in his great work, The City of God, condemned slavery. It took Christianity almost 2000 additional years to figure out he was right. That alone should tell us something.
Finally, we must carefully define what slavery is, before we begin to study/teach about slavery. In our crazy world, there are people who believe that the Government, when it mandates we get the COVID-19 vaccine, is a form of slavery. They are the ones who think it is taking away their liberty, if we don’t allow them to “spit into the soup we all have to eat.” They have a difficult time seeing the critical line, where Liberty ends and Social Responsibility begins.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a DREAM about all Americans. He spent his life helping us to see where that line is drawn. Do you see it? On which side of that line do you stand?