WHAT SHALL WE DO ABOUT OUR HISTORY?

 

            PBS  Amanpour and Company Originally aired on June 26, 2020.

How Could a Slaveholder Write
"All Men Are Created Equal"?

As European Americans we are both connected and divided by our history, who we believe we are and who we believe we should be. African Americans too have differing ideas about how we should remember our history without somehow inadvertently or surreptitiously honoring those who sought to perpetuate slavery, or who enslaved their ancestors and who did nothing to end slavery.

We need to remember our history. Our history needs to be honest and truthfully told. Removing monuments can open  space to celebrate our history in ways we can be proud of that strengthen democracy, while never forgetting the crimes we (our ancestors) have committed or that we might commit (heaven forbid) in the present or in the future.

Peter

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Christiane Amanpour asks the question "Could a slaveholder also be an advocate for equality for all?"

That is the riddle left behind by one of America’s founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Annette Gordon-Reed and Jon Meacham have teamed up for a study in contradiction. "In the Hands of the People: Thomas Jefferson on Equality, Faith, Freedom, Compromise and the Art of Citizenship" was edited by Meacham and has an afterword by Gordon-Reed. They talk with our Walter Isaacson about the problem of Jefferson's monuments--and those of so many others--and whether or not they should come down.

The program is 19:55 minutes long and you can watch it by clicking on the yellow highlighted text or the image above.

See also: "THE AMERICAN DILEMMA: DIVISIONS OVER RACE, GENDER AND PARTISANSHIP"  featuring discussion between Walter Isaacson and Annette Gordon-Reed who argues looking at history's great leaders including Thomas Jefferson is the best way to understand our divisions over race, gender and partisanship.