Local schools use history book with error about black soldiers

An elementary-school textbook that asserts many black soldiers fought for the South during the Civil War is circulating in some area schools.

That claim has been widely discredited, according to historians. Moreover, they say, it is often made by groups looking to rewrite history.

The book is being used by fourth-graders in Norfolk and fourth- and fifth-graders in Chesapeake. In Suffolk, it is not the official textbook, but it is used as a resource for fourth grade.

Virginia Beach schools also use it as an optional resource for fifth grade, and Tuesday the School Board considered adopting it as a primary text. Now the board is backing away.

"We are appreciative of the timing of this story because curriculum and instruction will now remove the textbook from consideration for adoption," spokeswoman Kathleen O'Hara said in an e-mail. Portsmouth schools are not using the book.

Schools statewide have been discussing what to do since a Washington Post story Wednesday exposed a section in "Our Virginia: Past and Present," published by Five Ponds Press. On its website the company, which is in Weston, Conn., says it is "d edicated to providing colorful, exciting, affordable books to support Virginia's History and Science SOLs."

According to the Post's story, it was Carol Sheriff, a historian at the College of William and Mary, who noticed the error in her daughter's textbook. The passage reads, "Thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson."

Author Joy Masoff, who is not a trained historian, defended her work but admitted that she found the information primarily through Internet research.

"As controversial as it is, I stand by what I write," she told the Post. "I am a fairly respected writer."

The Internet is where the idea of black Confederate soldiers has reached a pitch.

Organizations out to memorialize the war want to believe it was fought primarily over states' rights or economics instead of slavery, said Timothy Orr, a history professor at Old Dominion University.

"It tends to be a kind of propaganda," Orr said.

The Confederacy banned black soldiers from its armies until they were desperate - three weeks before Richmond fell, said James Loewen, professor emeritus at the University of Vermont and author of "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader" and "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong."

The problem with elementary-school textbooks is first that they're rarely written by history scholars, and second that vetting groups don't always read them, he said.

"There's absolutely no quality control anywhere along the line," Loewen said. "So it's just terrible history with terrible consequences for today."

State schools spokesman Charles Pyle said the state Board of Education approved "Our Virginia" in March. It was reviewed by a committee of teachers who screen new textbooks for alignment with the state Standards of Learning.

No historians sit on that committee, although historians do sit on a committee that reviews the standards.

"Clearly they overlooked something here," Pyle said.

Now that state officials know the book contains incorrect information, they are notifying the divisions. Textbook errors are found from time to time, but not usually with material this provocative, Pyle said.

Local school boards also have committees that review textbooks on the state's approved list. Usually the committees are made up of teachers and parents.

Sheriff said in a Washington Post web chat Wednesday that aside from the part about black soldiers, "Our Virginia" is in line with scholarly interpretations of slavery and other points.

Nevertheless, Virginia Beach principals are asking teachers who have copies to stop using it until steps can be taken, O'Hara said.

Chesapeake schools won't stop using it, in part because it is just one tool of many that teachers use in the classroom, spokesman Tom Cupitt said. Plus, fifth-graders won't reach their Civil War lessons until spring, giving teachers time to adjust their plans, he said.

And in Norfolk, students might have a discussion on the way.

"This question about 'Our Virginia: Past and Present' could provide a teachable moment," schools spokeswoman Elizabeth Mather said in an e-mail.

Elisabeth Hulette, (757) 222-5216, elisabeth.hulette@pilotonline.com