Only 8% of high school seniors said the South seceded because of slavery; 48% "tax"

[muriel_volestrangler]

In early December 2016, Teaching Tolerance contracted with Survey USA, a highly rated national polling firm to conduct an online survey of 1,000 American high school seniors.
...
The most shocking finding of this survey is that only 8 percent of high school seniors can identify slavery as the cause of the Civil War. Almost half of the respondents (48 percent) said tax protests were the cause; it is possible that they confused the Civil War with the Revolutionary War, but that is its own particular problem, given that all of the other questions in the survey were about slavery in some form. That gap shows just how resistant students are to identifying slavery as the central cause of the Civil War.

https://www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/tt_hard_history_american_slavery.pdf

Question was:

17. Which was the reason the South seceded from the Union?
a. To preserve states’ rights
b. To preserve slavery
c. To protest taxes on imported goods
d. To avoid rapid industrialization
e. Not sure

"Not sure" was 13%. So that's about 31% for the combined "states' rights" and "industrialization" answers, so even the "slavery? Who, us??? Nah, it was states' rights" apologists justification lost out to the "I guess it was tax" ignorance.

[NewJeffCT]

1. I don't think it's that students are resistant

it's how they are taught by their teachers - if they have history teachers saying it was "state's rights" or "taxes" that is what they will believe as well if it's backed up by their textbook.

[Merlot]

5. Exactly. It's what they were taught.

I found the use of the word "resistant" to be an odd choice.

[NewJeffCT]

6. And, unfortunately

a lot of these textbooks are coming from Texas and backed by extreme right wingers, and since Texas is so big, what sells in Texas for textbooks flows to other states.

[Kimchijeon]

14. Yeah they are parroting what they're taught

Sadly. ☹

[JDC]

2. Man, I find this hard to believe tbh

Thank you for the pdf link. Downloaded for reading later.

[lunasun]

3. Please teach your children well. Or others will and that's the only source the kids have then . If

you never say they lie, sorry but I have had to tell mine the teacher is lying, why shouldn't they believe what they are being taught in a school their parents send them to? Check out your boards also

[unblock]

4. the "states' rights" think really ticks me off.

they had the "states' right" to impose slavery since before they were states. that wasn't at issue.
yes, lincoln got elected and yes, lincoln was an abolitionist, but slavery wasn't about to get abolished any time soon.
he had a hard enough time getting it abolished as the civil war was ending; it would not have been possible earlier.

no, the major issue in fact was that the slave states wanted the federal government to force the free states to forcibly return black people who had escaped to their freedom.

they wanted the federal government to *restrict* the rights of the free states.

[hunter]

7. How does anyone survey high school seniors?

My kids pretty much ignored everything but phone texts from their closest friends at that age, especially so once they'd been accepted to college.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. There's a thing called the internet these days (nt)

[hunter]

10. Other than their social sites, kids ignore the internet too.

Our local high schools give students chromebooks, just as we used to get textbooks. Students use those for class assignments and research, but little else. Their social lives are entirely in their phones. (My wife's sister is a high school teacher and she loves her chromebook. She's gone fully electronic, no papers to carry home.)

I don't doubt the wretchedness of U.S. history education in many places. These are the same kids who don't "believe" in evolution. High school biology textbooks in the U.S.A. are organized so teachers can skip that chapter, just as history textbooks are arranged so teachers can skip the unpleasantry of slavery.

My sister lives in the U.S. South. She has to make sure her kids and grandkids learn the history and science the public schools there won't teach.

Here in California my own children had a fantastic advanced placement high school history teacher, and their science classes were solid.

Much of the U.S.A. isn't so fortunate, there are places where things haven't changed since the Scopes Trial.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Other than the major use of the internet, they ignore the internet, then (nt)

[hunter]

12. I'm not skeptical of the report, I'm just wondering how one might survey 1000 high school seniors...

... on the internet. The internet is a big place.

I'm trying to imagine an internet survey directed at teens that wouldn't be met with the stereotypical teen eye roll.

I can easily picture a headline like this:

Internet Survey Reveals Most Teens Don't Know What Day it Is!

That we've failed our children and our teachers are incompetent is always popular internet fodder.

Nevertheless, the SPLC report is worth reading.

[Nevernose]

16. If there are more than ten questions

The majority will just fill in random bubbles, or such has been my experience. I’d like to know more about the methodology they used, though.

I did have a high school senior once ask me, “South America and North America? I thought there was just one America. Do we have another country somewhere else?” She was not joking and was not messing with me.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. IMO, about 8% should receive a diploma.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

13. I was speaking with

my 12 year old granddaughter and Lincoln's name came up. She pronounced he was President of the North. I countered with no he was President of the United States and wanted to preserve the union. I don't know if she learned that in school (she lives in Las Vegas) or if that was her own conclusion..............

[Luciferous]

15. I just asked my 10 year old and he knew the answer

[ProudLib72]

17. Interesting way the south views the war...

I apologize in advance for this, but I put in here for good reason. See, this article was published in 2013 in the Daily Progress, the only newspaper in Charlottesville, VA.

Protective tariffs: Primary cause of the Civil War: http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/guest_columnists/protective-tariffs-primary-cause-of-the-civil-war/article_63b77f5c-dc0c-11e2-8e99-001a4bcf6878.html

The rewritten history of the Civil War began with Lincoln as a brilliant political tactic to rally public opinion. The issue of slavery provided sentimental leverage, whereas oppressing the South with hurtful tariffs did not. Outrage against the greater evil of slavery served to mask the economic harm the North was doing to the South.

The tariff of 1828, called the Tariff of Abominations in the South, was the worst exploitation. It passed Congress 105 to 94 but lost among Southern congressmen 50 to three. The South argued that favoring some industries over others was unconstitutional.

The South Carolina Exposition and Protest written by Vice President John Calhoun warned that if the tariff of 1828 were not repealed, South Carolina would secede. It cited Jefferson and Madison for the precedent that a state had the right to reject or nullify federal law.