School failed to teach us about slavery

Michael Brown and Merisa Skinner participated in a joint dialogue about slavery. Looking back, Michael and Merisa agreed that public schools failed to educate students that slavery started American history and about the legacy of slavery.

Instead of unpacking the consequences of slavery in present-day America, it was treated as any other subject in a history class — events that took place in a historical past only relevant in relation to an upcoming exam. 

“I remember the way we were taught history. The teacher would tell the facts and we would just get told, ‘This happened on X and Y did this,’” Brown said. “We had to memorize facts for multiple-choice tests and then that was it. There was no real discussion about anything.”  The focus, he says, was never about understanding slavery, but memorizing facts to be a good student. But Michael became a life-long learner. He studies and reads history a lot. Regarding Brooklyn slavery, Michael was intrigued. 

“In Brooklyn, the enslaved Africans were able to purchase their freedom very easily and a lot of them did. They were able to buy plots of land. There were even cases of enslaved Black people filing court cases against White Dutch people and sometimes they won. So, it wasn't the same as the Southern plantation slavery system.” 

Michael added that since working at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, he got a chance to see the slavery economy up close. He saw financial ledgers from insurance companies and bank statements. He said he saw original documents that prove that the slavery economy laid the foundation for the British Empire and the American Industrial Revolution.

“I don't want to blame the teacher or the school. The teachers didn't care.  But the students also didn't care either. And that’s is another thing. The teachers were more focused on what students needed to pass a state test to qualify for college.” Michael believes that his education was never really about teaching students true American history that included Black people and other people of color.

Recalls a field trip to pick cotton.

Merisa grew up in a military family and attended schools in many places. She said Southern public schools were more diverse than New York City. She remembers more of a focus on Civil Rights than slavery. She said as a third-grader in Virginia the class picked cotton during a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg. And she was not mad.

“History class never covered slavery. It all started with the Civil Rights Movement. From kindergarten, first grade, second grade, we learned about Martin Luther King and positive Blackness. When I moved to Virginia because my mom was in the military, it was really diverse. People think New York City is diverse. But in Virginia, I went to a Black school with Hispanic people. I also went to an elementary and middle school in Virginia that was Whites from all over the world, Asians from all over the world, Hispanics from all over the world, and Black people from all over the world. One day, we went to Colonial Williamsburg, the first-ever American British colony in Jamestown, Virginia, and we picked cotton. When I tell people this story, they say: ‘That's horrible. You must be traumatized.’ And I said No. I was impressed not mad. I didn't know that cotton was so beautiful and sticky. And there are a million little seeds in every little flower. And the flower produces fibers that people were able to make clothes out of. That was amazing to me. I think a lot about slavery just gets flattened.”

For Merisa, it was more important for schools to indoctrinate their students with, rather than having larger discussions about slavery, cotton plantations, and its legacy.

“Despite the differences in how the effects of slavery were presented in a school setting, the underlying thing is that the institution doesn't really have a vested interest in how the public comes into a knowledge of the history of slavery.” The way in which slavery is taught is at its core dehumanizing, Merisa said.  

In her early childhood in New York City, she remembers one school that focused on Black empowerment. Shifting the narrative away from the history of slavery, allowed teachers and students to develop more complex conversations about freedom, struggle, race, society, and identity. It also allowed students to understand slavery in a larger context, relating to present-day issues. 

“I think a lot about slavery just gets flattened. Either, its dismissive and people say: ‘That was the past and let's move forward because it doesn't help anybody.’ Or it gets caught in this reductive ideology of: ‘It was wrong and it was bad.’ Neither does any favors to humanity.”

Merisa Skinner lives in Brooklyn and is a barista, student and artist. She enjoys food and things that smell nice. She’s hopeful about publishing little books that illustrate the journey of luxury commodities from the Global South to our homes.

Michael Brown Jr. is long-time resident of the Bronx in New York City and currently a student at the Bard at BPL Microcollege in Brooklyn, NY. He has won fellowships from Brooklyn Poets and Poetry by the Sea. His work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Beloit Poetry Journal, Hopkins Review, Measure Review, and elsewhere. He currently works as a Library Page at the Schomburg Center's Manuscript and Rare Books Division in Harlem, NYC.

Have a listen to Michael and Merisa’s complete dialogue below: