Tag Archives: evidence

Virginia and the Black Confederates

Recently the news was full of the fact that VA’s fourth grade history textbook described large numbers of black men serving in uniform for the confederacy. The claim is these slaves were loyal to their masters and fought to preserve slavery. This is simply absurd: it’s wishful thinking. It’s true that late in the war, […]

Evidence and Scarcity

As digital technology expands, our whole relationship to presenting evidence will have to change. Other disciplines roll their eyes at historians for having  too many examples. A lit scholar might read a historical article and think “he had me at five: the forty five examples that followed  didn’t accomplish a damn thing.” And even history […]