Texas Confederate History Resolution Passes 5-0

A week after Virginia governor Bob McDonnell declared April to be Confederate History month (because April is the month that Virginia seceded from the Union), and 3 days after McDonnell caved to public hue and cry that his declaration failed to include a single reference to the main issue in Southern secession, the Southern penchant toward owning black slaves, another governmental body uncomfortably close to me made a similar declaration.

This time they didn’t fail to decry slavery as “morally abhorrent”, the way the Virginia governor did – perhaps taking a cue from what was being said all over the press.

The Brazoria County Commissioner’s Court voted 5-0 to declare “Texas History and Heritage Month” as shown on the Court’s agenda. The way the title reads you would think they would be thinking about honoring the fallen heroes of the Alamo or Sam Houston.

Or a plug for the purchase of James Michner’s widely unread (in Texas) tome, “Texas.”

But alas, no. the Court voted for a resolution that recognized April as “Confederate History and Heritage Month in the State of Texas.”

And while lots and lots of it was hand crafted in Brazoria County, and it contained many references to Texas and Texans, whole portions of it were lifted from the Virginia declaration.

And while it included that “morally abhorrent practice of slavery” portion as one of its Whereases, the very next paragraph has this:

“Whereas politically correct revisionists would have Texas children believe that their Confederate ancestors fought for slavery when in fact most Texans joined the Confederate armed forces to defend their homes, their families and their proud heritage as Texans…”

I have to ask this: who but a blindingly rabid racist would vote for and then sign a document that contains that language?

It led me to take a look at what our Texas children are actually being taught about why Texas joined the Confederacy. Especially appropriate because our State Board of Education is currently immersed in revising the state’s social studies curriculum, including the 7th grade curriculum that is a study of Texas History.

Here is what the 7th grade curriculum currently says:

History. The student understands how events and issues shaped the history of Texas during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

The student is expected to:
(A) explain reasons for the involvement of Texas in the Civil War.

Period.

This is the proposed new text:

The student is expected to:
(A) explain reasons for the involvement of Texas in the Civil War such as states rights, slavery, sectionalism, and tariffs.

Is anyone surprised at this? I certainly am not. A note off to the side to explain this new addition explained that this was in order to “provide consistency among example causes.”

Really.

If that’s the case then they could save some ink and leave out that tripe about states rights (the right to own slaves), tariffs (that depressed the sale of slave-harvested cotton), and sectionalism (for that, read meddling by Abolitionists).

They could save all that ink so that they could refer to the Civil War the way it is referred to here in The South: The War of Northern Aggression.