American, Built on the Backs of Enslaved Africans

As any of my
former 8th grade students will
attest to, I’m an

avid student of
African American
history. To teach

and learn about the
history of our country,
one must delve deeply

into history
of the enslaved Africans.
Afterall, it is

on the backs of those
with the status of 3/5ths
of a person that

our country was built.
For decades I have combed through
whatever I could

get my hands on to
inform me of this ‘hidden’
history: picture

books, videos, slave
narratives, all levels of
historic fiction,

music, poetry,
Howard Zinn’s work and others
telling history

of America
from multiple views. The more
informed I became,

the more informed my
students became. My retired
life has afforded