Teach More About Slavery Please

Slavery in America is often overlooked in high schools. Of course they acknowledge that slavery existed but most schools don’t go into great detail on the subject. It is almost overlooked in history classes. Teachers would say “a lot of Americans owned slaves,” and then go on to discuss in detail the Industrial Revolution or the Civil War. It wasn’t until college that I learned that there were slave revolts. I had assumed that there were uprisings, but I wasn’t sure until college.

In college I learned that slave revolts were common, and that the primary reason Lincoln released the slave was to punish the southerners. I should have been taught both of those facts in high school, but unfortunately, American slavery doesn’t seem to be as high on the teaching agenda as it should be. Even though it is almost ignored, there are many reasons why high school history classes should focus more on American slavery.

Slavery in America lasted about 250 years, the longest period of any type in United States history. Nothing else of significance in the U.S. has lasted for 250 years. The country itself (calculated from the signing of the Declaration of Independence) is only 231 years old. Slavery lasted longer than our country has existed yet it hasn’t even earned a chapter in the history books. In terms of length alone no other event or period even compares but yet they all have their own chapters. The Civil War and World War I only lasted four years each, and World War II only lasted six years.

The Watergate Scandal lasted two, and the fight for our nation, the American Revolution, only lasted eight years. The Great Depression only lasted a decade. The length of these important events combined is still minute in comparison to the 2.5 centuries that slavery reigned in America. Length alone should be enough to put slavery in the history books as a legitimate lesson instead of it only being mentioned passively in other chapters.

The emphasis on and almighty importance of black history and Black History Month should also bring attention to the lack of slavery in high school curriculum’s. Slavery is the single most important period in black history; the civil rights movement doesn’t even compare. Slavery in United States is the starting point of black history. It’s when African turned to black and Negro turned to nigga. Slavery preludes every other achievement in black history and is at the roots of so much of our contemporary culture.