Missing Education

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I can trace both my maternal and paternal ancestry to the Mayflower. Growing up in New England, the story of my family and the story of America were one and the same. As a child, when it was my turn to present my family tree or to bring a snack that represented my family’s culture, I worried that I was boring my classmates. Nearly every year, in social studies we revisited the arrival of the Pilgrims and more often than not, one of our yearly field trips took us to Plymouth Rock. What more could I share with my classmates that they didn’t already know?

I don’t know when I started to suspect that the history I learned in school as a child of the 70s and 80s was far from complete. I know that now, I am trying, like so many other white people, to catch up. To unlearn what was wrong and to learn what was left out of my own education. I worry as I write and share about this process because I know I am being performative in some ways. Like I want credit for being a ‘good white person’ who is doing her homework. I learn by reading and sharing and talking about what I am reading though so I am going to risk doing it wrong and share here anyway.

One of my favorite podcasts, Currently Reading, has a group on Facebook for their Patreon supporters. Patreon supporters are people (like me) who pay a small amount monthly to financially support the work of the podcasters. Over the past few days, the group began reading and discussing the book Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.

So far, I have only read the introduction and the first essay. And already, I am embarrassed by what I don’t know. The good news is that, when asked, the girls definitely knew more than I did on the topic below so we are going in the right direction but holy cow.

So here is what I learned today. A ship, the White Lion, landed in Virginia in 1619 (a year before the Mayflower) carrying Angolans who were sold to the British colonists marking the beginning of slavery in America.

As a child, we learned so much about the Mayflower that it became commonplace. So much so that my family tree presentations seemed redundant. We have a national holiday to mark its arrival. Yet, as a well educated forty seven year old woman, before today, I had never heard of the White Lion. I never knew exactly how slavery began in America. To me, this seems like a pretty important piece of history to be missing from my education.

I wish that our previous president had been the first to launch a ‘misinformation campaign’ in America but sadly, this is not true. There is a long and powerful history of misinformation and importantly, information that was excluded from our education.

As I wrote about earlier this week, I am great at starting non-fiction books and less great at finishing them but I do hope to continue reading Four Hundred Souls. It is the book of essays, of historical writing and of poetry detailing the four hundred years of African American history that I desperately need to read.

Note: If you want to learn more about how this book came to be, I highly recommend this week’s The Stacks podcast. Traci interviews Dr. Keisha N Blain. Keisha who edited Four Hundred Souls with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.