7W* >***r~~--*-M r . RICE 25 CENTS Reprinted from the EDUCATIONAL REVIEW New York, January, 1900 Copyright, 1900, by Educational Review Publishing Co. ENGLISH HISTORY IN AMERICAN SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS BY CHARLES WELSH Author of "A Bookseller of the Last Century,' " Publishing a Book," etc. "(K\ //;.<. Gi LiyfC'^l'VV *~ -frvl. <■■■/- C -t^-i ■*- -Ot^. C a, «-c> of cal:: ANGELES UBRARY G^f ' HI ENGLISH HISTORY IN AMERICAN SCHOOL TEXT-BOOKS One of my earliest recollections is that of being taken to see the fireworks which were set off at the pierhead in Ramsgate harbor to celebrate the declaration of peace after the Crimean War. From that time until I went, when quite a young man, into the Gallery of Battles in Versailles — a gallery in which the glories of the French armies are celebrated in acres of canvas by the famous French artist Detaille — I never fully realized that Englishmen had ever been defeated by land or sea. I had been brought up in the belief that one Englishman could beat three Johnny Crapauds. But here all my illusions on that score were shattered at one rude blow, for about one picture in every three represented a defeat of the English in either a naval or a military engagement. Then I made up my mind with Sir Robert Walpole, that I would " study anything but history, for history must be false." Some such awakening has no doubt come to almost every thinking man or woman who has been brought up on the old methods of teaching the history of their country, whether they be English or American, French or German, Turk or Russian — this no doubt has its effect in inspiring a patriotic feeling; in keeping alive a belief in the invincibleness of one's own nation ; a faith in its good star, which has led men on to further victories and inspired them to yet more valorous deeds than their forefathers have performed. But in these later days we are recognizing more fully than ever the dignity of history, we are realizing that patriotism is not the sole and ultimate object of its study, but the search for truth, and abiding by the truth when found, for " the truth shall make ye free " is an axiom that applies here as always. A quaint old writer has said: 23 110563 24 Educational Review [January This is a great fault in a chronologer, To turn parasite: an absolute history Should be in fear of none, neither should he Write any thing more than truth for friendship, Or else for hate ; but keep himself equal And constant in all his discourses. Now young America has until recent years been brought up in just as one-sided a way of looking upon England as young- England was formerly brought up to look upon France, and if I touch for a little while upon some of those characteristics in the school history text-books of the past, which have been to some extent responsible for this, it is not with a view of rak- ing up old grievances, of re-opening old sores, or reviving dis- cussions that are happily closed, but in order to emphasize the more strongly the brighter day that is dawning — or, rather, that has dawned already and in the light of which we are now living. For my main object is not so much to show how English history has been handled in the past and how the English people have been misrepresented in American school text-books, as to call attention to the spirit in which the sub- ject is being handled by those who are providing the school histories of the present and the near future. Those old text-books which told the children how " proud Britain was humiliated," how " the boasted power of Eng- land was broken," her " haughty title of mistress of the seas forever taken from her," and " the tyrant of the ocean de- stroyed"; talked of "the bloodthirsty British redcoats," the " inhuman English soldiery," " the outrages perpetrated by In- dians with the sanction of British officers," of the treatment of the colonies by the English as " a distinct and subordinate class of subjects " are well described in a report presented by the Committee of Text-Books on American History to the New England History Teachers in October, 1898. 1 It says: The older style of text-book was a curious product. Its author was frequently a literary hack, ready to compile a dictionary, annotate a classical text, or write an algebra, as occasion offered. Of special training in history he had none ; but he had read a goo'd deal, had a number of apt stories at ' his command, and made up for his limited knowledge by a vivid and pliable imagination. To such a writer, the preparation of a school book in 1 American history was an easy task. Details aside, the general formula J 1 Educational Review, 16: 483. 1900] English history in school text-books -0 was quite unvarying. Say nothing- about the physical features of the continent, but extol the virtues of the noble Indian ; dwell on the brilliant intellect, the undaunted courage, and the magnificent faith of Columbus, the hardships of the Pilgrims, the grim sternness of the Puritans, the simplicity of the Quakers, and the quaintness of the Dutch ; show how the Revolution was due solely to the brutal tyranny of the British, and how Washington and Franklin had, in supreme degree, all the virtues ever exhibited by men in their respective spheres, and not a single fault ; characterize the Constitu- tion as " the greatest product of the human mind," but avoid much refer- ence to it after its adoption; cut up the period after 1789 into four-year morsels, and give to the mastication of each about the same amount of space ; dwell on the enormities of England after the peace of 1783, and the glorious victories of the war of 1812, not omitting mention of Jackson's cotton bales and Perry's green-timber fleet ; show what a lovely thing the era of good feeling was, and how the South went all wrong about nullifica- tion, slavery, and the Civil War ; add in an appendix the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and a list of Presidents, and then enliven the whole by a profusion of fancy pictures, including "Washington Crossing the Delaware," " A Winter at Valley Forge," " An Emigrant Train," and " Welcome, Englishmen ! " — and you had a book admirably adapted to the training of citizens and patriots. On such stuff were many of us fed in our youth. Mr. Edwin D. Mead, editor of the New England Magazine, writes : Much of the ill-will toward England which undeniably exists in great sec- tions of the American people and which the mischief-making politician can confidently appeal to springs from a false view of what the American Revolution was and what the history of England was in connection with it. The feelings of jealousy and anger which were born in the throes of the struggle for independence are indiscriminately perpetuated. Our children • grow up with the feeling that " redcoat " is the very badge and synonym of enmity to America. They are trained and fortified in it often by false and superficial text-books. The influence of false history and of crude j one-sided history is enormous. It is a natural and logical step by which children pass many of our schoolrooms to the back yard, there to set up images of " Britishers " and fire at the whites of their eyes ; and it is natural that feelings so born should die hard and at times become a dangerous factor in the national life. So important is the whole influence of popular historical views that we do not think it too much to say that a vast amount of the persistent ill-will toward England of which from time to time we become conscious among our people, as compared with the almost universal kindliness of English feeling toward us, is to be explained by the very different spirit in which the history of the American Revolution is taught to the boys and girls in the schools of the one country and of the other. Writing - on America revisited, in 1896, Mr. Samuel Smith, M. P., said : 26 Educational Review [January The history books taught in the public schools too often give the children of America the impression that the main events in human history are the American War of Independence, concluded in 1783, and the war with Great Britain of 1812-14. It need not be added that Great Britain appears in those histories always in the wrong, and the Americans always right. There are no pains taken to show that the best men in England protested against the policy of George III. and Lord North, and that the British nation to-day esteems George Washington as much as do the people of America. It is not explained that the England of last century was governed by the aristocracy, and that the England of to-day repudiates the fatal policy of the eighteenth century as much as do the citizens of the United States. These truths gradually become clear to all educated Americans, especially to those who visit Europe. But the children of the ignorant foreign population get no correcting education afterward. The newspapers they read perpetuate these prejudices, and there is con- sequently created a permanent mass of ill-feeling against Great Britain. The unfortunate and injudicious language that has been used in describing the events of the Revolution and the War of 1812, in the text-books which have just been described, can hardly be said to be materially untrue. But the child, the untrained reader, is more affected by a plain assertion than by any qualified phraseology. If you call a man " tyrant," " thief," or " murderer," no matter what you afterward say to minimize the offense, no matter what extenuating circum- stances you bring forward, no matter what explanation may be offered — the opprobrium of the term will be sure to stick. And, as I have said, with the young no amount of explanatory justice can overcome the effect of strong denunciatory lan- guage. Such words as " tyrant," " oppressor," " slave," and " arrogant " expressing the sense of the strong provocation of a hundred and thirty years ago, revive, rekindle, and keep alight the rancor and the passion of that time. They have kept alive in children's minds the idea that the English were monsters and the Americans the sublimest of heroes. Before turning to another point I may cite a few passages to illustrate what I have said. They are quoted from various books, which, altho still in use, have either been modified or are ceasing to have any large and important sale : The troops burned the Capitol and other public buildings. After this act of vandalism they withdrew to their shipping. After committing shocking brutalities at Hampton, the fleet sailed for the West Indies. 1900] English history in school text-books 27 England treated the settlers as an inferior class of people. Her intention was to make and keep the colonies dependent. The laws were framed to favor the English manufacturer and merchant at the expense of the ■colonists. . . . American manufactures were prohibited. Iron-works were denounced as " common nuisances"; even William Pitt, the friend of America, declared she had no right to manufacture even a nail for a horse- shoe except by permission from Parliament. The British naval officers behaved in a very high-handed way. In one instance their insolence was deservedly punished. The employment of foreign hirelings to subdue British-born subjects became a leading cause of American hatred for the mother country. There is no doubt but that the Boston boys were impudent sometimes. It is said that they called the red-coated soldiers " lobsters " and " bloody- backs "; but I am sure they would not have done so if they had been treated right. One of the most successful teachers of history in this coun- try says that American histories have unintentionally stirred up strife between England and the United States by omission rather than commission. Our historians have failed to state fairly issues between the countries. The causes of the Revo- lutionary War and the War of 18 12 have never been properly stated. The story of these wars has always been so stated as to minimize English success. There has been a failure to show the obligation that we are under to Eng- land from the intellectual side — literature, art, and invention. Most school histories have been written by ignorant school- masters, who put in print popular tradition rather than exam- ine authorities for themselves. A few words about these sins of omission, and then I shall turn to another phase of the subject. In nearly all the school-history text-books the employment of Indians by the British is described, sometimes in very strong terms; but there is little or no mention of the employment of Indians by the Americans, or of outrages committed by Amer- ican troops. In dealing with the War of 18 12 much is made of the massacre of the River Raisin, little of the American " atrocities " which provoked this. There is a general failure to call attention to the fact that the Government could even 28 Educational Review [January claim, in the expenses of the French and Indian wars, some warrant for their taxation of the protected colonists. Perhaps the greatest omissions of all have been the failure to emphasize the fact that the oppression of the colonies which led to the Revolution was the work of the king and one politi- cal party, and not that of the great people of England, and the failure to point out that the colonists themselves were by no means united in their struggle against the king and the Tories. I want, however, to emphasize the fact that in the very large number of school histories that I have examined I have not; found anything that looks like intentional misrepresentation or deliberate and willful misstatement made with a view to stir up and keep alive hatred of the British. The language that was found in the old sources from which the histories: were first written, full of the passion and bitterness of the moment, naturally found its way into these earlier books, but (I quote again the Report of the New England History Associa- tion) " under the influence of deeper study and a keener sense of justice, the element of bitterness which so often entered into the discussion of the Revolution has largely disappeared, and while its treatment in the text-books still leaves much to be desired, it is now seldom dogmatic and unsympathetic." Just to show how that great and most important event in American history is receding into a new perspective, I may point out how the space devoted to it in the history books has been gradually reduced: Grimshaw, 1822, devotes one-third of his space to the Revolution; Russell, 1837, one-third; Good- rich, edition used, published about 1881, one-fifth; Guernsey, 1849, one-third; Lossing, i860, one-third; Holmes, 1870, one- fifth; Swinton, 1871, one-sixth; Barnes, 1871, 1885, etc., one-seventh; Stephens, 1875, one-seventh; Johnson, 1885, one- ninth; Montgomery, 1890, one-eighth; Shinn, 1895, one- seventh; Lee, 1895, one-seventh; Cooper, Estill, and Lemmon, 1895, one-eighth; Thomas, 1893, one-eighth. These figures are most suggestive. The Civil War not only placed the Rev- olution in an entirely new and different focus, but the desire to see both sides of the question, and to write the history of the later struggle without wounding susceptibilities or keeping 1900] English history in school text-books 29 alive bad feelings has doubtless infused a greater spirit of fair- ness when treating of the farther off event. The desire for fairness to the South begat the need of fairness to all, and, of course, when the new history books are written which shall include the story of the Spanish war and the subjugation of the Philippines, both the Civil War and the wars against Eng- land will have to be viewed in a different perspective again. Many persons remember a visit paid to this country some three or four years ago by the late Samuel Plimsoll, M. P., whose name will forever be held in grateful remembrance by British sailors — and whose famous load line will, it is hoped, never disappear from British vessels. "The sailors' friend," as the fighter of the Coffin Ship interest was called, visited this country in 1896, and he described his mission as follows : I have come to this country to see if I cannot find the cause of the un- just dislike the Americans have for the mother country. That feeling is so uncalled for that there must be some cause for it — fancied cause, I think. We in England have no such feeling toward America. We have only sympathy and admiration for her. It seems strange to me that you should allow the ill feeling caused by a war of 120 years ago still to exist. You must remember that nine-tenths of the English people were opposed to the war at the time, and that the remaining one-tenth, the governing class, was divided within itself on the subject. Why let the acts of a daft old king, who was in retirement for insanity two or three times, cause an ever- lasting animosity toward the England of to-day, which has no more to do with that time than the United States of to-day has ? I believe the prej- udice starts with the children and is taught to them from school histories that misstate facts; and in these histories I think the remedy lies. I have gathered together all the histories that are used in the board schools of England. There are thirty-four of them. I examined them carefully, and I did not find the slightest unkind allusion to the United States in one. And so I have come to this country to examine the school histories used here. I have been told, and believe, that most of them are'unfair ; that they foster a wrong feeling toward the mother country. I hope to live long enough to bring this to the attention of thinking men, so that a reform can be begun. If we begin with the children, I think the rest will work out itself. I have given some idea of what Mr. Plimsoll might have found in the American schoolbooks, and were it not for the fear of wearying the reader I would like to contrast the lan- guage in these old American books with that in the English histories. But most persons know the tone always adopted in English school histories when dealing with the American Rev- 3<3 E ducat iojial Review [January olution, and if anyone wishes to refresh his memory he can get from the United States Bureau of Education a pamphlet con- taining the collection of extracts which Mr. Plimsoll brought together. Of this collection Mr. Edwin D. Mead, than whom no one in this country has done more to promote good feeling between England and America, says : Such is the teaching given to the boys and girls of England with refer- ence to the American Revolution. Everywhere the King and government of England are made to shoulder the blame, and the American colonists are held up to admiration as the champions of law and liberty and the rights of mankind. " Had we then had a House of Commons elected by the people, as we have now," — this word of one would be adopted by all, — " most likely the war with America would never have taken place." " If the counsel of some of the wisest statesmen in England had been followed, there is no doubt that a compromise would have been effected and peace maintained. But the King would not hear of making any concession. He regarded the colonists as rebels who must be forced into obedience." " England was fighting for a bad cause, and freedom and good government came from her defeat." To true fraternity and friendship there is nothing more important than a true treatment and understanding of the history of the nations in their relations to each other. It is fundamentally important that this history should be taught aright to the boys and girls, for they are to be the men and women, the sovereigns, to-morrow. May we not learn from these English schoolbooks lessons in fairness, in frankness, in tem- perance and breadth, in good humor, and in noble spirit? Some people have said it is easier for the English boys to read forgivingly of the resentment and rebellion of the colo- nists provoked by English injustice than it is for American boys to read without symptoms of sympathetic resentment of the injustice that provoked them. But that shows understand- ing neither of the circumstances of the case nor the attitude of mind of the British people. Every British boy sympathizes with America in that struggle, for every British boy knows that America was fighting for exactly what his own people were fighting then, and had been fighting for centuries. When the English boy reads Patrick Henry's splendid warn- ing to George III. he experiences just as sympathetic a thrill as any American boy, and his heart goes out as warmly to the boys who bearded General Gage as does that of any boy of Boston; and I verily believe that, while most of us rejoice that England could conquer France and Spain and Holland, we 1900] English history in school text-books 31 have, if we read history aright, a secret satisfaction in know- ing that she could not subdue her own rebellious sons who had risen up against kingly oppression and whose courage and love of freedom were as strong as their own. Not all American history books have failed to present the case of the Revolution fairly. I find in one book, copyrighted in 1874 and written by Samuel Eliot, that In the story of the provocation dividing the mother country and the colonies we have not England, not Great Britain pitted against America, but the ruling classes in the mother country opposed to the better class in our colonies. The distinction is important ; nothing else could explain the amount of blundering on one side or the amount of wisdom, comparatively speaking, on the other. Nor could anything else so clearly indicate the difference between the'principles at stake : the principles of an old aristocracy on the one hand, and on the other those of a young commonwealth all fervent with vigor and with hope. Farther on in the book the writer tells the American boy that, when peace was declared, from all parts of Great Britain itself there came congratulations and applause. But such a treatment of the matter was the exception twenty- five years ago. Probably the publication, in 1891, of Mrs. Sheldon Barnes's Studies in American history has had as much effect as any single book in teaching the teachers that the Eng- lish people never fought against America; that the Revolution was a revolt against monarchs and tyrants, was a fight for a principle, such as Englishmen at home were struggling for at almost the same time — a principle of liberty and freedom. In this admirable pioneer book, the student is shown both sides of many historical episodes by extracts from contemporary documents, and it has been a revelation to many to learn from the extract from the London Gazette, which Mrs. Barnes gives in this book, that when the news that the royal assent had been given to the Repeal of the Stamp Act was made public, " there were the greatest rejoicings possible in the city of London by all ranks of the people. The ships in the river displayed all their colors and there were bonfires and illuminations in many parts." As another instance of English sympathy with American resistance to tyranny, I may mention the trial for libel of 32 Educational Review [January John P. Zenger, a New York printer. It was perhaps the first attempt at the restricting of the freedom of the press made in this country. Zenger was acquitted, and the speech for the defense by lawyer Andrew Hamilton of Philadelphia, with all the details of the trial, was several times reprinted in England, where the result was hailed with joy, for the people were at that time rebelling against the muzzling of the press in the mother country. It was Mrs. Sheldon Barnes's book, too, which brought to the notice of our history teachers the fact, hitherto almost always ignored in the text-books, that there was a very large and important section of the American people who sang : Tho fated to Poverty, Banishment, Death, Our hearts are unaltered and with our last breath Loyal to George we'll most fervently pray. Glory and Joy crown the King. These Tories, representing no inconsiderable portion of the wealth and intelligence of the country, were strongly opposed to the Revolutionists, and aided the British in every way possible. For this they suffered all manner of persecution and privation, and they displayed no small heroism in the cause. So that even the Revolution was not the unanimous, spontane- ous movement that the usual school text-book would have the children believe. The part the Tories took at the time of the Revolution is deserving of attention if we are to present the historic truth, and the desire to present both sides, — this spirit of fairness, this abandoning of rancorous epithet is the keynote of the newest books, — and a broader spirit yet must permeate those of the immediate future. As an instance of the new spirit in which the study of history is being approached by modern thinkers, I should like to call attention to an article by Professor Edwin Erie Sparks of Chicago University, on " The sentimental in American his- tory," which is an earnest plea for the truth in dealing with characters who have figured in the making of the nation. He asks that the honest and trustworthy portrait be given " warts and all," even tho the picture be not beautiful and shows that some instances of what has been called disinterested patriotism, 1900] Engl is Ji history in school text-books 33 even in such men as George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock were really the promptings of personal grievances which they had against the British. In the report to the American Historical Association of the Committee of Seven on " The study of history in schools," which was made last year, American teachers are told that : English history until 1776 is our history. Edward I., Pym, and Hampden and William Pitt belong to our past and helped to make us what we are. A realization of present duties, a comprehension of present responsibilities, an appreciation of present opportunities cannot better be inculcated than by a study of the centuries in which Englishmen were struggling for representation, free speech, and due process of law. Teachers are recommended to combine English and Ameri- can history in such a manner that the more important prin- ciples wrought out in English history, and the main facts of English expansion, will be taught in connection with American colonial and later political history. And they are told that without a knowledge of how the English people developed and English principles matured one can have slight appreciation of what America means. Even the Revolution, for example, if studied as an isolated phe- nomenon, is bereft of half its meaning, to say the least, because the movement that ended in the separation of the colonies from the mother country, and in the adoption of the Federal Consti- tution, began long before the colonies were founded, and be- cause the Declaration of Independence .was the formal an- nouncement of democratic ideas that had their tap-root in- English soil. Teaching such as this may safely be trusted to minimize the effect on the mind of the young reader of the strong language contained in the Declaration of Independence, which, I sup- pose, will for all time be printed as an appendix to the Amer- ican school history. When our school children read or hear read, " He [King George III.] is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the work of death, desolation, and tyranny. 34 Educational Review [January already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation," they will know that this was not the work of the English people; but they will know that it was part of a policy from which the English themselves were suffering and struggling to deliver themselves, and when, a little further on. they hear or read that " He has excited domestic insurrection amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and conditions," they will know that England was not alone in employing the Indian against its enemies. But the children of our schools in the future will know all this and more; they will be taught that the secrets of the won- derful progress of the English and of the American peoples are the same — that both have shown the same unconquerable desire for the liberty of the individual and for freedom of con- science, the same sturdy independence of thought and action, and the same impatience of foreign control. The spirit which secured for Englishmen all their rights and their freedom, the desire for knowledge which has made education the birth- right of the English-speaking people, — the fear of God, the desire to do right, the love of home, of family, and of country, the resistless energy of character, the scorn of comfort, the tenacious courage which led Englishmen to seek homes and build up empire beyond the seas, — all these qualities have been the same under different conditions in the history of both countries. The problems have sometimes been different, but they have always been met and conquered in the same spirit. Our American brethren have settled unexplored lands and were exposed to battle, murder, and sudden death, and they had to struggle against the tyranny and oppression of one monarch; but they triumphed over every obstacle and established a system of free government on firm and lasting foundations, which is to-day the admiration of the civilized world. We Englishmen have had a struggle for freedom which lasted a 1900 J English history in school text-books 35 thousand years; we have had to fight not only the forces of nature and the perils of land and sea, but against kings and conquerors, and against an aristocracy which was ever striving to keep us in ignorance and subjection.' The American children of the future will learn, too, that the institutions of the English-speaking people are very much the same in principle everywhere. Each nation and each colony has its own problems to work out, its own difficulties to overcome; but all are seeking to make our men and our women, our boys and our girls wiser and better and better fitted to govern themselves than any other race on the face of the earth. And, seeing we are one in race, one in history, one in tongue, one in the priceless inheritance of the noblest literature of the world, one in our aims, our hopes, and our aspirations, For ever let us meet with kind embrace Nor stain the sacred friendship of our race. Charles Welsh Winthrop Highlands, Mass. 110563 This book i s DUE on the last date sta i — ■ — • — ■ =j mped below iviW 8 Sit I & ** KC 5 1° DEC 5 Form L-9-15m-ll,'27 UNJ of AT 96 ANGELES RARY ■U-LO.<3r G77/4 Welsh - English History in| American school — ;ext-books. *\ ^ u-u UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 728 401 1