History Book mentions thousands of black confederate soldiers????

Tweet

Virginia's Education Department approved a textbook that wrongly claims thousands of black troops fought for the Confederacy, prompting state officials to warn superintendents and history teachers about the mistake.

"Thousands of Southern blacks fought in the Confederate ranks, including two black battalions under the command of Stonewall Jackson," the book passage says.

The agency issued a memo after a parent of a Williamsburg fourth-grader, who also is a professor of history at the College of William & Mary, found the passage in the Civil War chapter of "Our Virginia: Past and Present."

Black slaves occasionally took up arms to defend their masters, but it was illegal to use blacks as soldiers in the Confederacy until toward the war's end, said the parent, Carol Sheriff, a 19th-century historian who has written a book about the war.

Read more here 'Black Confederates' goof noted



Tweet