African American History Analysis

There is an old saying, “that there are always two sides to every story,” and this holds true regarding the study of English and History. Throughout my college experience I have found that the information in history textbooks is generally told from a political or outside, after the fact, perspective. Granted, some history classes offer up more personal texts, like that of W.E.B. DuBois’ Souls of Black Fold in History 3393: African American History. However, historical texts still maintain a certain factual tone and/or include statistical data regardless of any personal relevance to the author’s life. English and literature courses present characters and their stories for a reader to become invested in, all while being set in or taking place
A story that generally remains the same, is that of Columbus’ discovery of the Americas. It is engrained into the minds of American children at a very age that ‘in fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two Columbus sailed the ocean blue.’ We even gave him a national holiday to celebrate his accomplishment. However, it was not until I took English 3360: Survey of American Literature, Beginnings to 1865, that I was exposed to first-hand accounts of his arrival to the continent. One focus of the course was that of the discovery, conquest, settlement, and the literature of New Spain. It was in this section that we read Columbus’ letter to Luis de Santangel, in which he nonchalantly explains how he has found many islands that he has easily taken possession of because the inhabitants offer no resistance. He gloats how the natives have no way to defend themselves and how they still offer gifts to he and his men despite that he has enslaved some of them. (Columbus, 1493) Letters like Columbus’ and Cortes’ back to the Spanish crown shed a whole new light on the man and event that many of school children have put on plays about. It also extends some understanding to the experiences of the Native Americans and Pilgrims approximately 185 years
The same can be said about literature. Students tend to want to learn about things that are relevant or even remotely related to their lives or the lives of their parents and grandparents. This is the reason we have seen an increased popularity of slightly more modern history courses like History 3369: The World in the Twentieth Century. Take the Vietnam War for example, it is one of the longer wars that America has participated in, spanning right around twenty years. So, it is likely that most people born anytime from the 1930-40s to present-day, served or knows someone who served in that horrendous war. Because of this close relation, students are more interested in learning about these events and the stories of those who experienced it. In some cases, this is history they can touch and interact with it by speaking to those who lived it. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien is one of the best books about the Vietnam War. It focuses on the lives of soldiers of infantry division before, during and after serving in the war. Tim’s reason, which he shared in a 2014 interview, for writing the book is a shining example of how History and English are so closely linked. He said, “histories only go so far, and novels – fiction in general – are a way of trying to breathe some life and faces into the abstractions of dates and, you know, historical events.” (Port City Daily,