I suppose if you consider locking a 4 year old girl in chains for 10 months on suspicion of witchcraft a fitting template for the future America... Nancy ------- I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days. --Daniel Boone On Feb 3, 2007, at 2:09 PM, Douglas Deal wrote: > [log in to unmask] wrote: >> the winners write history.....the north and to hear it told in >> Mass..... New England won the conflict between 1861 and >> 1865...they get to publish the history and then publish the text >> books so everyone gets the PC version of New England history. >> It's only been in the last 20 years that other regional histories >> have come into the history story...but they still want everyone >> on to think Plymouth was the first >> >> >> > > But remember that Americans started writing histories of the > country soon after independence (i.e., well before the Civil War). > Also, a reading of histories produced from the late 1860s into the > mid-20th century reveals that most are not especially critical or > neglectful when it comes to describing the southern colonies and > states and their achievements. > > The skirmishing over priority in the origins of the colonies (plus > institutions) that became the US started early. For example, at the > 1802 Forefathers' Day celebration at Plymouth, participants readily > conceded that Virginia was home to the oldest permanent settlement. > But the roots of America's political ideology and institutions, > they said, were in Plymouth's free soil, not the slave South. They > toasted "our Sister Virginia:--When she changes three-fifths of her > Ethiopian Skin, we will respect her as the head of our /white/ > family." (from Joseph A. Conforti, /Imagining New England /[2001], > p.182) This could be read as a complaint about slavery or about > blacks or both (clearly it is critical of the 3/5 compromise that, > Northerners argued, led to overrepresentation of the Southern > slaveholding states in the H of R). At every stage, this origins > debate has tended to reflect current themes as much as historical > arguments.... > > Another good book on this question is Ann Uhry Abrams, /The > Pilgrims and Pocahontas: Rival Myths of American Origin/ (Westview > Press, 1999). > > > Doug Deal > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the > instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html