when you learned about slavery in school I'm 100% certain that it was presented as if slavery ended with the emancipation proclamation. I don't recall any discussion with regard to black people and slavery when we talked about reconstruction, do you? Gilded Age, Industrial Revolution? Any of that, more?
i was raised in mhk, so i got a very pro-union, redemption of america thanks to john brown and kansas type spin on the civil war. but you're right, it was all very chapterized. as i recall it, black people showed around 1840, evidencing an unfortunate problem that was soon solved and by 1870 or so we were back to railroads, political cartoons and minor wars. black people maybe made a cameo here or there in unfortunate excesses or historic firsts until 1950 or so when the supreme court, mlk and the kennedys finally solved racism.
