This research project will uncover how America has time and time again covered up and then alternately shed light on a lot of significant events. Journalists and teachers recently have corrected multiple events that were historically taught. This research will show how this history was misrepresented in multiple areas. It is the purpose of this paper to raise awareness of the inconsistencies in how history has been shown and to encourage steps so that it is correctly represented. This is important because the untruths are not allowing Americans to reckon with their true past injustices. 

The effects of misrepresenting history has continued to advance negative attitudes and hasn’t allowed wrongs to be righted as well as injustices being addressed. It’s important to shed light on this issue because we’re discounting other cultural races contributions and ownership. This issue is also promoting racism because it's only showing a singular race in a good way and thus not allowing for equality. History has been very one sided and promotes a one sided view. Why did America cover up its past? What are the effects of covering up the past? What are specific events that have been covered up? These are questions to be answered in this research paper. Previous assumptions were that sources traditionally used were correct. The assumption was that the media can be trusted. Better methods are accurate resources with past inaccurate resources  and showing how some are misrepresented. Getting accurate documents is another method. Actual interviews are also people's understanding of certain historical events that contradicts what actually happens and showing how textbooks and literature should continue to be put under this scrutiny.

Many books as well as sites show this misrepresentation but one in particular shows how textbooks “Reflect Americas refusal to reckon with slavery”(Greenlee). The current climate, racial tensions, and Native American issues and how they are truly treated is evidence that there continues to be a lack of equality possibly encouraged by these past historical inaccuracies. Women were misrepresented as well but now there is a movement for empowerment of not only women but also Blacks, Native Americans, and Asians. 

This research paper will look at actual current and historical inaccurate documents as well as literature. The methods will be in line with other scholarly methods and opinions. As well as current social media misrepresentations about history to further show how people misunderstand history. Examples such as name calling illustrate these misrepresentations. The reader can have confidence in the paper because there can be so many different examples of inaccuracies that it is going to be obvious that history has been misrepresented. 

The presupposition is that people have accurate history. Understanding our history and past will allow people to have better race relations, better understanding of minorities, and better treatment of all. If people knew the accurate history injusticies there would be less discrimination and more support for better laws for equality. Equality could also be promoted for races. Accurate instruction, portrayals, media, and literature will contribute to promoting additional equality in law. Suggestions for subsequent research could arise from the potential outcomes of the study and would support laws promoting racial and gender equality. There has to be accurate and fact based instructional resources in school to be provided. Results of this paper could vary because if people are more informed they could be more likely to support minority programs. If a society is supporting its most vulnerable minorities there could be a more stable and productive economy with less violence, and crime. 

This paper shows the importance of awareness of accurate historical events and the importance of understanding true history. This study should be done because it'll give appreciation to diversity and is a validation that everyone is equal and supports racial equality when history is accurate. If everyone understood the inaccuracies of our past it would be one step toward equality and less crime and violence. The purpose of this research paper is to show that historical accuracy will promote equality, writing of injustices, and work toward equality. 

Abstract

In this research paper it compiles a variety of information relating to the fact of America's history being covered up. Citizens have been fed false information by schools, textbooks, and the media. Multiple events have also been misunderstood such as Thanksgiving, Columbus day, and numerous others. Information has been compiled from articles, books, textbooks, and websites talking about certain events and how they truly went versus how they were portrayed to have gone. Through extensive research and study it is uncovered how much history has been covered up. This research paper goes in depth of the truth of our histories past and how the false information was compiled to how it is today.

Research Paper

In recent times it has been uncovered that America's history has time and time again been covered up with inaccurate and false information. Americans have been fed lies about major historical events from school textbooks, the media, and past historians. Some of these events include Thanksgiving, American Slavery, and a European explorer.

In America today many people are ignorant of our history’s past, events, and education in schools plays a huge role. For starters, students at a young age are taught history in school using textbooks. One prime example is African American history and enslavement. Little is taught about specific events. Textbooks don’t tell the gruesome stories that would happen to slaves. Stories as horrifying as people being beaten until their backs bled, rape, frequent stories of starvation, and twelve to fifteen excessive work hours a day. One article by the Atlantic called “We Mourn for all we do not Know Truly” goes in depth of slavery. A man named Clint Smith collected forgotten stories and brought to light their histories of slaves. One quote in particular, “When I first came across the narratives, I was confused as to why I had never, not once in my entire education, been made aware of their existence. It was as if this trove testimony accounts that might expand, complicate, and deepen my understanding of slavery- had purposefully been kept from view”(Smith 31). This quote displays just how little the average citizen understands America’s flawed past. By compiling these accounts, Clint Smith reveals many facts that might have been lost. The recounting that these people have of their ancestors is truly shocking and eye opening.

In this article there are real life accounts of enslaved African Americans and what they were going through at the time. It captures quotes from former slaves who talk about their average days. Even though a lot of voices were heard, some southern interviewers would change their words and language. They did this to alter the gruesome nature of the stories. “This issue of manipulation in the interviews is something historians have had to wrestle with. The narratives were rarely verbatim transcriptions. Many interviewers altered their subjects’ dialect to make it seem more ‘authentically’ Black.” (Smith 33) One story, that was most likely altered, was William Sykes’ story. Sykes was an African American who grew up enslaved to a confederate southerner. He told of his life as a slave, yet it is believed that a lot of his recountings were manipulated. One story in particular says “I had my say-so dey’d burn down de n*g**r schools, gibe dem pickanninies a good spankin’ an’ put’em in de patch ter wuck, ain’t no n*g**r got no business wid no edgercation nohow (Smith 33). This quote is blatantly racist and it is very difficult to believe that a black person would truly think these things. It’s also hard to accept this quote when another one of his accounts portrays slavery in a much more realistic way. “Mr. Jim am some mad an’ he takes Jane out on Sunday mornin’an’ he beats her till de blood runs down her back” (Smith 32). This quote is much more indicative of the time as it shows how love was actually like for former slaves like Syke. These inconsistent retellings just go to show how veiled our history is and how little Americans actually comprehend.

America’s flawed history textbooks have deeply impacted how kids perceive past events. At a very young age students are given certain documents and articles to learn from. From then on from kindergarten through twelfth grade, they are taught a very misconstrued history. One example of this is how history books cover American slavery. They try to downplay the cruelty by saying that "Slaves were treated well or cruelly depending on their owners" (Brown). By stating that only some of the owners were actually cruel, it implies that other owners were actually good people. They definitely were not good people because they still owned slaves. Another example of how textbooks have changed the past is how they don’t fully educate younger children. “The eighth grade texts give almost exclusive attention to the Reconstruction Era. In general, the eleventh grade texts were the only texts that discussed violence during Jim Crow and the Civil Rights/Black Power Era.”(Brown) The authors of this article compiled multiple textbooks and tried to find examples of misrepresentation in history textbooks for younger students. It was revealed that only eleventh grade students were taught the true violences the civil rights movement and slavery. Yet later in the article it talked about how even though they did talk about some violence in these 11th grade textbooks, they still would not even remotely come close to the true horrors of what was done. These textbooks are just another way that America covered up its history.

One of the more well-known instances of American ignorance is Thanksgiving. The thought behind this is that the American colonists committed a mass genocide against the natives. When one celebrates this truly horrific holiday they are, in reality, “celebrating the mass genocide and deception that occured” (Brockell). According to Wikipedia the definition of Thanksgiving is “a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Liberia.” It began as a day of giving thanks and sacrifice for the blessing of the harvest and of the preceding year.” Schools did teach about the meal between the pilgrims and the Wamapong but there is so much more to this event. “Just 16 years after the Wamapanoag shared that meal they were massacred”(Blow). The horrible events that happened in these sixteen years were truly shocking. Almost all the Wamopong died from diseases brought over by the white colonists. They did some gruesome acts to the Native Americans. One quote from the novel Bury My Heart at a Wounded Knee stuck out in particular, “their bones were forgotten in a thousand burned villages or lost in forests fast disappearing before the axes of twenty million invaders” (Brown 52). The holiday of Thanksgiving can be very traumatic for a lot of people because each passing year that Thanksgiving is celebrated, is yet another year that Americans don’t recognize the mass murder that the colonist committed. They don’t acknowledge that history has been rewritten and that white settlers did terrible things to get land and power. Thanksgiving is just one of many injustices that America has covered up. 

Lastly, Christopher Columbus was a huge part of America's covered up history. Americans celebrate Columbus Day on October 11 to commemorate and celebrate Christopher Columbus reaching America. What was left out was the appalling actions that he did to the Native Americans. For starters, Columbus and his men enslaved over one thousand of the native Americans. Along with having slaves, Christopher Columbus and his men sexually assaulted numerous women. One of Columbus's close friends wrote in his journal, “took a piece of rope and whipped her soundly...finally we came to an agreement in such manner that I can tell you she seemed to have been brought up in a school for harlots”(History.com). This is an absolutely terrifying image but was very common among the men of this voyage. Columbus wrote to one of his acquaintances “there are many dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to 10 are now in demand.” according to the Washington Post. Again this was just the reality for these men. The Spanish would not only perform these unspeakable acts to the adults but also the children and babies, “They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers’ breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks”(Bartolome). The Spanish explorers had not only killed the men, women, and children physically but they also meanwhile spread diseases like smallpox, malaria, and influenza. These diseases killed millions of Native Americans. Kids in school are not taught of these injustices and neither are multiple adults. They have to come to the harsh reality of the true facts. 

The truth about American history has just recently come to light and many injustices have been uncovered. The USA’s past has been rewritten by textbooks, historians. and the media. The true retelling of events such as Thanksgiving and American slavery. America has tried to cover up their past wrongs by changing history and it is just simply wrong. 

Works Cited

Blow, Charles M. "The Horrible History of Thanksgiving." The New York Times, 28 Nov 2019. eLibrary, explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/2319622841?accountid=4535. 

Brockell, Gillian. “Here Are the Indigenous People Christopher Columbus and His Men Could Not Annihilate.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 14 Oct. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/10/14/here-are-indigenous-people-christopher-columbus-his-men-could-not-annihilate/.   

Brown, Anthony L., and Keffrelyn D. Brown. "A SPECTACULAR SECRET: UNDERSTANDING THE CULTURAL MEMORY OF RACIAL VIOLENCE IN K-12 OFFICIAL SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS IN THE ERA OF OBAMA." Race, Gender & Class, vol. 17, no. 3, 2010, pp. 111-125. eLibrary, explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/762224752?accountid=4535.

Brown, Dee Alexander, and Judee Shipman. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: an Indian History of the American West. Ishi Press International, 2014. 

Dion, Eryn. "What really Happened on First Thanksgiving?" Visalia Times - Delta / Tulare Advance - Register, 26 Nov 2020. eLibrary, 

explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/2465960010?accountid=4535. 

Greenlee, Cynthia. “How History Textbooks Reflect America's Refusal to Reckon with Slavery.” Vox, Vox, 26 Aug. 2019, www.vox.com/identities/2019/8/26/20829771/slavery-textbooks-history.   

History.com Staff. “How Sexual Assault Has Been Portrayed-or Erased-Throughout History.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Oct. 2018, www.history.com/news/sexual-assault-rome-slavery-columbus-jim-crow.  

Rogers, Linda. “Bias in Social Studies Textbooks.” March 1994 scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1959&context=etd-project 

Smith, Clint. “Stories of Slavery, From Those Who Survived It.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 17 Feb. 2021, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/federal-writers-project/617790/?preview=ajWGGghn8sl7aTAt5BEXeSdAoQo.   

Annotated Bibliography

Brown, Anthony L., and Keffrelyn D. Brown. "A SPECTACULAR SECRET: UNDERSTANDING THE CULTURAL MEMORY OF RACIAL VIOLENCE IN K-12 OFFICIAL SCHOOL TEXTBOOKS IN THE ERA OF OBAMA." Race, Gender & Class, vol. 17, no. 3, 2010, pp. 111-125. eLibrary, explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/762224752?accountid=4535.

This is an excellent and very detailed article about the inaccuracies of school textbooks. It talks about  how little white Americans know about African American history. The article shows the differences between multiple textbooks as well as grades and comparing and contrasting events as they were told. This topic over school textbooks I think is what starts out the inaccuracies in history and how those stories are passed down and it will play a key role in my research paper.

Dion, Eryn. "What really Happened on First Thanksgiving?" Visalia Times - Delta / Tulare Advance - Register, 26 Nov 2020. eLibrary, 

explore.proquest.com/elibrary/document/2465960010?accountid=4535.

This article uncovers the truth and facts of what truly happened on the First  Thanksgiving. It discusses the first time that Europeans and Native Americans came in contact and how trading came to be. It describes the events that took place when the Europeans showed up. This article will play a key role in this research paper because Thanksgiving has to be one of the most covered up moments in America's history.

Possible Quotes to use:

“The historically accurate story of the Pilgrims and the founding of Plymouth Colony 400 years ago this month is not in most school history books. "Even though it's inaccurate, we can't just bury it." 

Gorvett, Zaria. “How the News Changes the Way We Think and Behave.” BBC Future, BBC, 12 May 2020, bbc.com/future/article/20200512-how-the-news-changes-the-way-we-think-and-behave 

The article covers how the media influences the thought of current events as well as the past. The media is one of the biggest influences on younger generations and how they get their information. It discusses different studies that were done to see how news and media affects Americans and how they use that information to pass it on. This article will be useful in my research paper because it will show the significance of media and news and how it can create a false history and more myths.

 Possible Quotes to Use: “The average American spent around eleven hours every day looking at screens, where information about global events is hard to escape. Many of us even take our primary news-delivery devices, our mobile phones, to bed.” This quotation shows the significance of the media's impact on Americans and how it can play a key role in getting accurate information.

Rogers, Linda. “Bias in Social Studies Textbooks.” March 1994 scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1959&context=etd-project 

This website is very extensive, in depth, and it's a very interesting take on the biases in history textbooks and how a collection of information is left out. It gives examples with textbooks and how they portray native americans, black people, and asians in American. This is a particularly interesting website because it is teaching how teachers could teach their students truthfully by spotting out the historical inaccuracies before. This topic will be crucial in my research paper to show the immense amount that schools have covered up history. 

Possible quotes to use: “The biases found in textbooks are often errors of omission, errors of commission, imbalanced orientation, stereotyped illustrations and avoidance of human rights issues.”