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New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth

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Alan J. Singer (Professor of Secondary Education, Hofstra University) New York and Slavery: Time to Teach the Truth is more than a history of slavery in early New York; it's a guide for educators, historians, and thinkers to teaching the next generation the whole truth about New York's legacy of slavery, emphasizing that "Black History is American History". "Too often the public or 'official' version of history follows one of three fundamentally unreliable and predictable models. There is the uncritical patriotism presented at national monuments such as the Alamo or Mount Vernon... The 'Disney' version of history roughly draws on the past as a starting point to present entertaining and marketable stories that tells little about actual events or people... Meanwhile, for the so-called History Channel, history is most often reduced to blood and gore, a whirlwind of war, natural disasters, and other kinds of mayhem." Offering a variety of methods to teach young people the truth about the history slavery in America, from "mock slave auctions" to core historical ideas upon which a curriculum can be solidly grounded, New York and Slavery resists the all-consuming drive to make scoring well on standardized tests the goal of education, emphasizing rather the importance of focusing on the realities of history and helping young people become savvy critical thinkers. Indeed, the title of "New York and Slavery" is slightly misleading since it deconstructs myths about slavery in all the Northern states, not just New York. An absolute "must-read" supplementary resource for junior high, high school, and even college American History educators.