Florida has acted to stop the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is premised on the idea that racism is built into the structure of this country’s government. It would appear that Florida now requires that instruction be “factual and objective.” That should be a given. There’s more.

Instruction “may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence.”

That last part ditches the notion of “factual and objective.” Slavery was protected by The Constitution. (Art. I, sec. 9; Art. IV, sec. 1 and 2.) Only The Civil War and the 13th Amendment brought an end to slavery. But facts of Florida ‘s history contradict The Declaration.

“The Spanish brought the first slaves to the colony of La Florida in 1526, nearly 100 years before traffickers took slaves to the British colonies in 1619.” The Miami New Times, 10/27/19. Delegates to Florida’s Secession convention were vocal about slavery, and not in opposition.

The rapid spread of Northern fanaticism has endangered our liberties and institutions, and the election of Abraham Lincoln, a wily abolitionist, to the Presidency of the United States of America destroys all hope for the future," John C. Pelot, chairman of the convention January 3, 1861.

"[S]lavery is the element of all value, and a destruction of that destroys all that is property," John C. McGhee, president of the convention, January 5, 1861. He added "the institution of domestic slavery is expressly guaranteed" in the U.S. Constitution.

The election of Abraham Lincoln “a wily abolitionist” was said to “destroy all our hope for the future.” The New Miami Times. The Civil War was not the end. “The U.S. Sugar Corporation was indicted for still using slave labor in the 1900s.” The Miami New Times. 

The deal the GOP cut to catapult Rutherford B. Hayes into The Oval Office in 1876 after he lost the popular vote, but won the votes of electors (a common theme) was made at the expense of the former slaves for whom Reconstruction was a hope.

People are taught not to question those in authority, and those in authority have been good at the writing of cheap, manipulative slogans. Our schools should teach that which is “factual and objective.” We should not whitewash history.

The States whose leaders committed treason. Their successors have been slick at lulling their followers with hollow slogans of a yesteryear that never existed. This “Land of the Free” failed to follow the “universal prinicples” of The Declaration. That is fact. We need to drop slogans.