Why No Blacks At Gettysburg?

[Ed Jones]

Hi, All. Its been awhile, hope all are well. My short summer travels have impressed upon me a question, and I'd really like to hear the answers from this community!!

Why are there no African Americans at Gettysburg? I'm not talking living there, or historic issues (tho this article is quite interesting).

I'm asking why there seemed so few African American visitors to this, the central shrine of the conflict that earned for so many their freedom.

Of course I don't literally mean no black visitors. Indeed it was the wonderfully enthusiastic curiosity of two bright young men which perked up my attention to this question. At the time, I was just happy to see them there, playing with the interactive exhibits. Only later, on the drive home, did it occur that this should not be as unusual as it seemed.

For those who have never been, a trip to Gettysburg is a singularly defining experience. No person I've talked to who has visited has failed to say that it changed their life. They were not the person they were before the day they took in that awful battlescape. If you have stood on those low ridges and imagined tens of thousands shooting and charging in such a small area, and heard the personal stories of so many, you see our common history in a way you never could from a text or movie.

And, of course, this particular battle is the turning point after which the south never really had the opportunity it had the day before July 1, 1863.

In our case, we made the journey north from Harpers Ferry, where it all started with John Brown, and somewhat followed Lee across the Potomac to Williamsport and on through Chambersburg. Fascinating stuff everywhere.

So, yes, it costs $10.50 per adult to see the museum and multimedia. But those are the lesser part of the experience. The battlefield tours and presentations are free and are by far more compelling.

Its a cheap vacation in any case; part of why I was there. And an easy drive from NY, Boston, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Philadelphia, DC, and many more cities.

And, if you're wanting to make up for missed education, what an education is here!! You'll get as much in a 50 minute talk as I learned in a month of reading Cornwell's Agincourt. Much more than in University History class.

Presently one in eight Americans are counted as African Americans. That's five in each group of 40. We might have seen 5 in 100? in 200? Was it just my memory?

Clearly I'm thinking this might have to with education, or I'd ask elsewhere. What do you think?

[Mike]

Hi Ed.... hope this finds you well.

I think you raise an important question concerning the teaching of history in general. My opinion, blacks do not really see themselves in the way we teach.... nor do most kids of any race or gender.

My take.... it is still dominated by teachers trying to transmit bits of information into kids heads and coverage is the driving force. So much is disconnected from meaning for the average kid that it becomes how much of this can i memorize and spit back on the test. Even at the AP level it is coverage.

The other issue i have.... it remains textbook driven and they are far from interesting. They real stories that help connect kids to history become really very dry and meaningless.

My daughters favorite highschool history class by far, an elective, History through Film. First time i have seen her interested and connected with history and the stories behind the dry facts and lists of dates!

My first recommendation.... kill the use of history textbooks.... they are BORING!!!!!

thanks Ed.... be well...mike

[Laura Gibbs]

Hi Ed! Long time, no see!!! And hi Mike, I am really excited to hear about the success of your daughter's class in History through Film.

I'll confess that I find history books almost impossible to read, but I love (LOVE) good historical movies.

So, when I think of Gettysburg, I would really like to go visit there some day... and the reason is simply because I love the film Gettysburg - which is based on the book by Michael Shaara. I've watched the film, mesmerized, about a half-dozen times (I immediately bought the DVD after I saw it on TV) - but when I tried to read the book by Shaara, it just didn't work for me.

I'm not sure why it is - I am a good reader, I have a vivid imagination, and I read a lot of books and enjoy them very much. But somehow I cannot get myself oriented in history books very well... yet I fall into movies about history very easily!

Since my husband also likes historical films, we've been watching them a lot, and it has really made me a more eager "historical tourist," so to speak. Last fall, we went to Danville Virginia, about an hour's drive from where we live, which was the last capital of the Confederacy, at the very end of the Civil War. They have a small Civil War museum there, and I enjoyed it so much, thanks largely to the great movies about the Civil War, like Gettysburg, that I've seen.

I love historical documentaries, too - so in addition to drama films like Gettysburg, Gods and Generals, Glory (though I must have seen it a dozen times, I still cry during the last part of Glory), etc., I've also watched the Ken Burns Civil War series several times.

But still, I haven't found a Civil War book that I could read. I don't know why that is. But I sure do love the films, and it has inspired some tourism, too - something the books alone would not have inspired in me.

[Ian Carmichael]

Hi Ed,
Good to see your by-line again. I'm an Australian muggins trampling on special- hallowed ground here - of which Bruce Catton wrote. But my wondering is - how external were the African Americans to the conflict? The issue (at least one of them) was concerning them, but were they engaged in the prosecution of the issue, or were they standing on the sidelines?
And my second wondering is, in the teaching presentations - textbooks et al, are the protagonists white, and the African Americans looking on?
And my third wondering is, if the first two rhetorical questions come up the way i think, could it have been otherwise? After all, who was entitled to bear arms, participate in militia etc? I somehow doubt that African Americans would, or could have been sanctioned to do such.

But... I could be wrong, I'm just supposing from the Antipodes.