History as Prologue

Author: Mark Thomas

  • What if our founders hadn’t been slave holders?

    What if our founders hadn’t been slave holders?

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in

    A Constitution free of slavery A great many American historians, it seems to me, have accepted that the many compromises made to create an acceptable constitution were, however distasteful, necessary. Most unfortunate among these, so the narrative goes, were the bargains struck over the issue of slavery. While unproductive to consider even the possibility of nine…

  • Forgetting King, Kennedy and Indianapolis

    Forgetting King, Kennedy and Indianapolis

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in ,

    Forgetting King, Kennedy, and Indianapolis It was Friday and the students were in a noticeably high mood even for a Friday. I was teaching in an English, (as in grammar), classroom at an urban Indianapolis area school with a diverse, largely African-American profile. In addition to being the end of a school week, the date…

  • Teaching research skills before students go solo

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in

    Teach research skills before your students go solo My flight instructor climbed out from the Cessna’s right seat and casually told me to “taker her up, fly the pattern, land and taxi back here.” Both of us knew I was prepared. It was my sixteenth birthday, the youngest age one can solo a powered aircraft.…

  • Bringing rigor to the Underground Railroad story

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    by

    Mark Thomas
    in

    The noble failure Like most Americans my age, at least those who liked American History from early in their childhood, certain understanding were simply presumed straightforward. Among these acceptances was the purpose of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law. I didn’t like what I knew of the law, but I understood that the slave states insisted…