Education

Reconstruction Era National Historical Park

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Reconstruction began in November of 1861, when US Navy & Army forces destroyed two forts and took Port Royal, because when all the white planters fled in the Confederate retreat, 10,000 slaves took over their sea island plantations. Union policy at the time was to declare the former slaves “contraband” or illegal property seized by the military. But the pressure was on President Lincoln to resolve their status permanently. First, he quietly authorized the Union’s first black regiment—the 1st South Carolina Volunteer Infantry which by November of 1862 mustered 1000 men and engaged in battle—, and then he finalized his executive order to free the slaves.

“all persons held as slaves within any State…
in rebellion against the United States,
shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free”

Emancipation Proclamation of President Abraham Lincoln

Among the great mossy oaks here at Camp Saxton on the 1st day of January in 1863, our nation’s first black regiment gathered here with their friends and families to all become the first people freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Then the 1st SC Volunteers received their regimental colors as proud soldiers of the Union Army, under the command of one of John Brown’s conspirators in the raid on Harpers Ferry. Harriet Tubman was also here as a volunteer spy and liberator, and in June she guided three gunboats and the 2nd SC Volunteers up the Combahee River 25 miles north in a dangerous raid that freed 700 slaves. Other African American regiments from Kansas, Massachusetts and other states in both the north and south soon followed, and by the end of the war, 200,000 African Americans enlisted to make up 10% of the Union Army.

As soon as Port Royal was liberated, Philadelphian abolitionists Laura Towne, Ellen Murray and Charlotte Forten, who was African American, arrived and began the most important part of reconstruction: teaching. While not the first African American school, in 1862 they founded the Penn School to teach people who had been denied formal education for generations. The Gullah Geechee people had created their own language and had kept many cultural traditions alive, including the delicious Lowcountry boil or Frogmore stew, and, when given the opportunity for formal education, they began learning basic, practical skills to live independently, everything from shoemaking and auto repair to cooking and nursing. At the Penn Center, I met a Gullah Geechee woman who still speaks the language and who was treated as a child by one of the first physicians to graduate from the Penn School.

The Gullah Geechee sea islands remained in Union hands throughout the war and became central to the Union “anaconda” naval blockade. The hero Robert Smalls (see Fort Sumter), after helping convince Lincoln to enlist African Americans, purchased the home of his previous owner here, using his congressionally awarded bounty for the Planter, and represented this district in Congress for five terms. The beautiful, historic neighborhoods of Beaufort were retained by the descendants of freed slaves by strict preservation laws, resulting in a sharp contrast with nearby predominantly white golfing communities like Hilton Head. In a historic echo, 100 years after the Union used Beaufort as a base to fight the Confederacy, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference chose the Penn Center as a base for their Civil Rights campaigns, including planning the March on Washington and the Poor People’s Campaign. Dr King wrote his I Have A Dream speech here in Gantt cabin on the Penn Center campus.

Plan your visit thoughtfully. To the west, Camp Saxton is hidden at the water’s edge between a navy base, the ruins of Fort Frederick and a residential neighborhood. In town, the visitor center in the historic zone’s old firehouse has very knowledgeable rangers who skillfully and kindly disabused me of my misconceptions. To the east, the Penn Center has exhibits (for a donation) on the school, the Gullah Geechee community and the important Civil Rights work done here. There are two dozen historic building on campus including a dock and a Rosenwald school. Many, such as the Brick Baptist Church, aren’t presently open to the public, but Darrah Hall is open with park staff, information and exhibits. A wonderful volunteer discussed whether the Reconstruction Era ever really ended. Plan more time for the Penn Center partner exhibits, less time for the downtown Beaufort visitor center and enough time at Camp Saxton to stand under the Emancipation Oaks (and take a better photo than I did).

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

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Okay, the photo is crooked. But in a way, that’s appropriate. As the ranger Randy explained, “there’s more than you know” here. Turns out, the school board took all the public school funds, gave them to the all white school, and told the African American community to build their own school on their own. So that’s why this is considered one of the finest looking schools in the country, because of racism and theft.

The Supreme Court may have ordered schools to desegregate, but many local school districts did everything they could to resist. As ranger Randy said, “you need to ask why there were only nine”, referring to the Little Rock Nine. In fact, there were many more than nine African American students in the district, but the school board put all kinds of restrictions on who could get in to the white school: you needed a 3.8 GPA, you weren’t allowed to participate in any extra-curricular activities, and you could neither report nor retaliate to bullying. They specifically designed the rules to reduce the number of black students to a small few who they could force into quitting.

The mob arrived first. The nine were told to arrive later and meet nearby. Well, all except for Elizabeth Eckford, who didn’t have a phone. She went right up to the door, surrounded by a hateful and threatening mob and was met by the National Guard. She expected the soldiers to protect her and let her pass, but they had been ordered by the governor to block any of the nine black students from entering. Confused and alone, she walked back to the bus stop and waited, enduring constant torment from the racist mob.

The case goes to Federal court, which disallows the Guard from blocking the students. The police try to defend the nine, but there’s a riot. Finally, Eisenhower nationalizes the Arkansas National Guard and sends in the 101st Airborne to escort the students inside more than three weeks after school began. The students endure physical and verbal abuse daily all year. The governor closes all the schools. The voters approve it. The Federal court declares that unconstitutional. And eventually, black students make it through to graduation.

Perhaps the racists thought that it would be easier to intimidate the smart kids, but they fully understood what was happening, why it was important that they didn’t give up and why they still shouldn’t give up.

George Washington Carver National Monument

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I love this statue. Carver was born at the end of the Civil War and was kidnapped and orphaned by the Klan. His mother’s owners retrieved him and raised him here, where he studied the plants near the creek as a child. He was educated mainly in Kansas, despite racial barriers, and eventually became the first African American to graduate from his school. His manner was mild, but he demonstrated great determination in the face of poverty, adversity and prejudice.

Recognized for his extensive scientific knowledge of botany and for being a groundbreaking African American scientist, he was hired to teach at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee University. His goal was to help the least in society, so he worked on modernizing agricultural techniques used by African American farmers, even bringing a cart from the university out to the fields to teach, a technique copied by the US Department of Agriculture. He published many books and pamphlets, developed patented techniques and is best remembered for developing the lowly peanut into a highly profitable series of products. He testified to Congress about the peanut and scientific agricultural techniques and was widely recognized for his many accomplishments.

I know Carver is an inspirational figure admired for overcoming obstacles, but I can’t help but wonder how many others were denied even the limited opportunities he had. Slavery existed here for 244 years, with 10 million sent across the Atlantic and maybe another 10 million born into slavery here. None of them were properly educated. None had the freedom to pursue their dreams. And all died without being able to fully contribute their talents and ideas to improve the world. How many young, inquisitive minds were destroyed by slavery? How much human enlightenment was snuffed out to pick cotton? Carver was one of the first born after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, and he spent his life making the world a better place for all of us. But I can’t help but mourn the incalculable loss of all the other people during those 244 years and after who could have contributed as well or even more.

Fort Scott National Historic Site

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Built in 1842 to defend the “permanent” frontier with Native American territory, the fort quickly fell behind events. Settlers were already moving west on the Santa Fe Trail. Within four years the actual frontier was being taken from Mexico, with cavalry “dragoons” riding a thousand miles west from here to fight in that war. The fort was abandoned in 1853 and the buildings auctioned. But the military withdrawal set the stage here for Bleeding Kansas, the conflict that presaged the Civil War. Turns out the military wasn’t needed here to keep peace between the settlers and the “warlike” Natives, but rather between the slavers and the abolitionists.

When the Supreme Court overturned the Missouri Compromise and the government passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the US government officially decided that it was best to just let the states decide on slavery by themselves. Here, the pro-slavery townspeople– and “border ruffians”–took over the fort to defend against militant abolitionists in the surrounding countryside who were determined to prevent the expansion of the moral abomination of slavery. Around 60 people were killed, including a pro-slavery former deputy marshal, whose widow is remembered for swearing revenge.

The US military returned to use the fort during the Civil War and defended it from guerrilla attacks. Both African American and Native American regiments were formed here. And after the war, soldiers were again sent west to defend the railroads against squatters who protested being cheated out of the land stolen from the natives.

While educational, I believe the park service has a responsibility to do more than simply illustrate the views of both sides. The Civil War was not “a controversy over states’ rights” nor was Bleeding Kansas merely “growing pains” as park exhibits say. The only states’ “right” being contested was the “right” to chain and breed people, on the basis of race, in perpetual ignorance and slavery, including women and children, forever. By any standard of human rights, that is not a right, but a profound moral crime. There is no legitimate justification of slavery. Perpetuating traitorous and racist views that there was any honor in fighting for slavery is dangerous to society and deeply offensive, to those held in bondage, to their descendants and to those who fought and died to end slavery in America.

Homestead National Historical Park

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I grew up reading about the frontier spirit of rugged individual homesteaders who followed their manifest destiny, tamed the wilderness and settled the country by grit, determination and hard work. Most Americans can trace their roots back to folks like these, and this view traditionally defines what it means to be an American.

But I’ve learned a few things on my way here, so it’s time for some myth busting. First, the “untamed wilderness” was already occupied by Native Americans who built homes, farmed and lived off the land. Second, the settlers received serious government assistance in the form of the US military clearing the Native Americans off the land and giving it to them. Third, the homesteaders almost immediately ruined the environment by removing the topsoil, causing the dust bowl and mass migration to California. And finally, I only see little huge corporate agribusiness here now, not individual farms.

The park is impressive, with both a state of the art Heritage Center and an Education Center. The film and museum are “award-winning”, and much of the focus appears to be on teaching kids to be proud of their homesteading ancestry. Much of the money was donated by the local fossil fuel utility, so I’m not surprised that environmental issues such as the tallgrass prairie devastation, the dust bowl and the changing climate are not the focus. But what angered me was a slight-of-hand trick employed to tell the homesteading story.

The film & exhibits make it abundantly clear that the Native Americans once lived on the land before the homesteaders settled, and the unfair history is presented in a way that kids can’t leave without learning some basic facts. However, at the beginning of the film Native Americans are described as not believing in land ownership, in the middle they say all they want is for everyone to respect the land, and at the end one Native American speaks of how he loves his reservation. And the egalitarian aspects of the Homestead Act are used to justify it: blacks could homestead (although slavery held them back at the beginning), women also benefited, and European immigrants homesteaded.

I believe it’s wrong to lie to our kids, especially to make them feel better about something that was wrong to do. The Native Americans did own the land. And the homesteaders knew it, because the newspaper ads that urged them to go west clearly said “Indian Territory Open to Homesteaders” and “Grand Rush for the Indian Territory”. They knew it, because some moved into sod pit-dwellings built by Native Americans. They knew it when they copied Native American burn techniques to encourage new growth to feed cattle. And they knew it when they grew corn in the same fields as the Native Americans. What the Natives didn’t have were written real estate deeds or the ability to defeat the US military.

It’s simply dishonest to suggest that it was OK to take the land due to lack of ownership rights. It’s also wrong to imply that it was OK to take the land since it was under-utilized. Imagine someone comes into your home and tells you that they bought your land on the dark web using Bitcoin. Then they explain that it’s all legal in the new digital world and that you have to move out now since you don’t have a hexadecimal key to participate in the secret auction online. When you protest, they force you to leave with high tech weapons. Finally, to justify their actions, they say that they can house more people and grow more food on your lot. You would correctly say that you had been robbed, and you would correctly say that the explanation doesn’t justify the crime.

Frankly, in the 21st century, to be repeating old lies that the Native Americans wanted homesteaders to take their land because they would better use it is offensive. The US military forced the Native Americans off the land at gunpoint, by slaughtering bison, and by encouraging white settlers to move in. The homesteaders used the land in the same way as the Natives, farming, ranching, hunting and fishing. In some ways they were more advanced, and in other ways, such as topsoil removal, they were more destructive. It is also devious to try to defend the racist policy of Native American removal by saying that it benefited blacks, women and immigrants. Would you teach your son that it’s OK to beat up and steal another child’s lunch as long as he shared a little of it with other kids who were hungry?