By Al Benson Jr.
It seems to me that in the battle for the preservation of Confederate and Southern heritage and culture we need to be aware of some of the resources that are out there for folks to utilize. Too often we lose the battle because we show up unprepared to deal with an adversary that has been trashing our heritage for 150 years and more and we just found out about the battle last month. So we march into the fray, confident because we now know some truth, and we get stomped on because our enemies have books and publications with over a century and a half of lies contained in them while we have something we got off the Internet last week.
We need to start off by training our youngsters in the truth, and that won’t happen in a couple of weeks, or even a couple of years. But we have to start and we have to continue to work at it—pointing out Yankee/Marxist untruths and balancing them off with facts. If you can start your kids off young, so much the better.
A really good age group to begin with is ages 8-12, or grades 2-6 in school. Kids are old enough to begin to learn history at that point and there is a new book out now that will enable them to begin. Written by Lochlainn Seabrook, this new book is appropriately titled Honest Jeff & Dishonest Abe—A Southern Children’s Guide to the Civil War. It was published by Sea Raven Press, SeaRavenPress.com of Franklin, Tennessee. At a level appropriate for 8-12 year olds this book deals with the slavery question and who was responsible for slavery in America. It deals with the abolitionists both North and South (true abolition started in the South not the North) and it deals with the real reasons for the war and the personalities involved, including terrorists like John Brown and dictatorial personalities such as Abraham Lincoln.
Books such as this were unavailable when our children were this age but had this one been around our kids would have used it. For a beginning study about the history and reasons for the War this is a good place to start. It is a foundation you can build on. The book sells for $24.95.
For older youngsters, from junior high or middle school on into high school there is another work I purchased a few years ago that I cannot recommend too highly. It is The War Between the States—America’s Uncivil War by John J. Dwyer. Mr. Dwyer has written a 660 page book dealing with all aspects of the War. The first time I read it I went through it making notes and then when I finished it I turned around and read it again. For older kids the information in this book is essential and it will refute the fables put forth in public school “history” books. It was published by Bluebonnet Press, www.bluebonnetpress.com of Denton, Texas. Again, I wish this had been available when our kids were in high school.
When our daughter was in high school I used an excellent (at that time cassette tape) series by Rev. Steve Wilkins called America The First 350 Years put out by Covenant Publications, 224 Auburn Ave., Monroe, Louisiana 71201. I believe it is still available, only now in MP3. This is a good series and gives the lie to many of the tall tales kids are fed in public school “history” books. Rev. Wilkins sets out clearly the real reasons for the War and shows how the results of the War have affected this country right down to our own time, and this is all done in a Christian context.
There are many excellent books out there now that older kids can learn from if encouraged to take the time. Thomas DiLorenzo’s The Real Lincoln and Lincoln Unmasked are two. There are several books written by the Kennedy Brothers, such as The South Was Right! And Was Jefferson Davis Right? Published by Pelican Publishing of Gretna, Louisiana, there is Lincoln’s Marxists by Walter Kennedy and myself, also published by Pelican Publishing in 2011.
Years ago, when searching for history material having to do with the War and finding not all that much, I undertook to write a series of booklets myself dealing with the War and the reasons for it. A few years later I wrote tests to go with these booklets. I did one booklet on the reasons for the War, one on the abolitionists, one on Lincoln’s socialist friends from Europe, one on secession, and one on the propaganda of Lincoln’s emancipation. The idea was that if kids would not read an entire history book they might read a booklet of 20-25 pages with basic information and take the test that went with that booklet. It was mostly for home schooling families, but anyone can use it. These are still available and you can check them out at http://thecopperhead.blogspot.com or if your computer won’t open that page for you then you can write to The Copperhead Chronicle, P O Box 55, Sterlington, Louisiana 71280 for more information. You can also contact me at cpprhd10@aol.com It is called The Homeschool History Series. Please check it out along with these other sources of material listed above.
revisedhistory 