Not Everyone Who Lived the Day before Yesterday Was ‘Evil’

People alive today can’t simply pretend that everyone who lived before us was evil.

This point, and the ancient academic debate about how to avoid “presentism” when engaging the past, attracted some unexpected mainstream attention last week. It came to light that down in Florida (i.e., political DeSantisLand), a line in the African-American-history teaching standards noted that some enslaved Africans learned useful skills during their time in American bondage. Verbatim, the standards state: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”