Dear Editor:
This letter is in response to an editorial I read in the June 15th issue of St. Augustine Record entitled “Our view: National history test results are poor”.
In my opinion, its not poor but truly sad.
My hankering for learning history began at the age of 5. I remember my first trip to St. Augustine — my dad’s family hometown. It was a shock after learning all that English history in the Maryland area.
As kids, we were, and still are, fascinated about Spanish Florida. That began for me 42 years ago. Unfortunately, many of us have been stuck on stupid. We still have no concept of the power of our southern history and only focus on Civil Rights and Civil War.
It’s sad because Europeans know more about Americans in St. Augustine than we do ourselves.
Over the course of the last few decades, historical research by academic scholars and historians has shifted from the political and social to the study of our American multi-cultural history.
This allows for a much broader perspective of our American history. In fact, areas like Atlanta, St. Augustine and Charleston are becoming the more progressive and sought after tourist destinations in the Southeast because they have begun to focus on our rich multi-cultural American history.
In the past American history has been disjointed and incomplete. Most writers fail to include the participation of black patriots like Cromwell when telling the story of the American Revolution — thereby telling only half the story.
Working with the Florida National Guard, I have been involved in bringing well deserved attention to one of the least talked about groups of the colonial conflict — the all black Rhode Island Regiment used by General George Washington to win many battles.
The American Revolution was a fight for freedom and the first hero to fall in the name of liberty was a black sailor named Crispus Attucks. It was observed by renowned educator Booker T. Washington that Attucks was the first to shed his blood on State Street in Boston so that the white American might enjoy liberty forever; even though Attucks’ race remained in slavery. Many black patriots were involved in the formation of America; however, Attucks was the only name that became widely known.
Considering his probable status as an escaped slave, Attucks risked personal liberty as well as his life by participating in the Revolution.
In 1779 The Chasseurs-Volontaires de Saint-Domingue, a total of 700 soldiers, (a tenth of the allied army) were instrumental in defeating the British in the Battle of Savannah.
In ten short years, by 1789, what had been the original thirteen British colonies in North American had attained the height of prosperity with their exports of sugar, coffee and cotton raised on about 8,000 plantations — comprised mainly of Haitian slaves.
It is fitting that the Haitian American Historical Society and the City of St. Augustine will be commemorating the monument of General Biassou in June so we can learn more of our American history related to Spanish Florida.
Derek Boyd Hankerson
St. Augustine
Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News contributed photograph by Derek Boyd Hankerson