A Nation Divided

During my forty-eight years of teaching United States History, there were several myths that students had heard about Abraham Lincoln, African Slaves and the Civil War. When we began studying the unit on these topics and Abraham Lincoln's name was mentioned in discussion, in almost every class I taught students would say, "I heard that Lincoln owned slaves." Then students would tell me they learned in classes they took that slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War. And some students would point out there are superior races of people and inferior races of people, and that the inferior races are only fit for doing menial jobs. I started teaching in 1958, and I am writing this book in 2023 when I am 90 years old. The community where I started teaching was a suburban area of Los Angeles and teachers would tell me that until recently black people "knew" they were not permitted in the streets at night. I decided to write this book to set the record straight, because many of these attitudes still permeate our culture: ¿ Lincoln was not a slave owner. ¿ Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. ¿ There are not superior and inferior races of people. I know you will enjoy reading and learning about the truth of the historical background of these topics. I taught United States History in a special and unique way. In my classes I would bring my guitar each session and sing at least one song that the people used to sing during the time period being discussed in class. To make this book more meaningful, and show how one important aspect of human experience, music can be integrated into an historical analysis. There will be songs that the slaves sang and songs that the soldiers sang. This will add a dimension to understand the historical events that most histories do not. I recorded these songs so you may, if you wish, join with me as I sing the melodies of the songs. The recordings are included as links within this book. I did not put in all the words to these songs because I did not intend the reader to see this as a songbook. It is an historical analysis, which includes songs. I hope you will enjoy this approach as my students did.