Brevet Brigadier General Samuel Chapman Armstrong’s Civil War

Gen. Samuel C. Armstrong (NAID 167250430).

At Benedict, Maryland, in command of U.S. Colored Troops, on December 17, 1863, Union Army Lt. Col. Samuel Chapman Armstrong wrote, “we are fighting for humanity and freedom, the South for barbarism and slavery.”^[1] Just three years earlier he had been a college student in the Kingdom of Hawaii and in 1862, before beginning his military service, he was a senior at Williams College. His story, particularly regarding what he was fighting for in his adopted country and his evolving views regarding African Americans, is quite interesting and well worth telling.

So begins NARA Archivist Greg Bradsher’s fascinating account of S.C. Armstrong. You may read his entire Text Message post here.

Compromising on a Timeline for World History

Responding to criticism of its earlier plan to begin the Advanced Placement World History exam around the year 1450, the College Board on Wednesday announced that it would begin the test with questions starting at about 1200.

The board also committed to offering a second AP world history course focused on the ancient world, in another apparent compromise to those who said that a single world history course focused on the modern era risked being too Eurocentric.

Currently, the single AP World History exam covers about 10,000 years. While some teachers like the scope of the exam, others say that it is simply too sweeping and that real learning suffers as a result. Taking the concerns of that latter group into account, the board, which administers the AP program, said earlier this year that it would limit the exam to questions about content from 1450 onward.

So begins Colleen Flaherty’s report at Inside Higher Education on AP World History exam. You may read the entire report here.

Government Boarding Schools Once Separated Native American Children From Families

In 1879, U.S. cavalry captain Richard Henry Pratt opened a boarding school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. But it wasn’t the kind of boarding school that rich parents send their children to. Rather, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was a government-backed institution that forcibly separated Native American children from their parents in order to, as Pratt put it, “kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

Over the next several decades, Carlisle served as a model for nearly 150 such schools that opened around the country. Like the 1887 Dawes Act that reallotted Native American land, or the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ 1902 “haircut order”specifying that men with long hair couldn’t receive rations, Native American boarding schools were a method of forced assimilation. The end goal of these measures was to make Native people more like the white Anglo-Americans who had taken over their land.

So begins Becky Little’s concise historical reminder at History.com of Indian Boarding Schools. You may read her entire post here.

LAMENTING THE LOST HOPE OF ADVENT

Advent is the season of hope, the season of waiting for the coming of Christ. As Christians we believe that our hope is found in Christ, and that the church, the body of Christ, is God’s chosen instrument of revelation.

But how do you offer hope when the Church itself is the oppressor?  When the Church has committed countless violations in the name of Jesus?

So begins Mark Charles’ (Navajo Christian) advent reflections. You can read them in their entirety at Native News Online here.

Photographs of Schoolroom Interiors

At the Library of Congress, Barbara Orbach Natanson offers some fascinating “reads” of photographs of U.S. classrooms. Take a look here: Absorbing Details in the Classroom: Photographs of Schoolroom Interiors | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos