TOPIC 4.3 Politics and Regional INTERESTS

THe Missouri APPEASEMENT

KC-4.3.II.C Congressional attempts at political compromise, such as the Missouri Compromise, only temporarily stemmed growing tensions between opponents and defenders of slavery

Objective: Students will evaluate the ingrained racism of textbook terminology embedded into the narrative of the expansion of slavery, especially the so called “Missouri Compromise”

This Key concept in an Antiracist classroom:

“Terms like ‘compromise’ serve to uphold a white supremacist view of the past. Rather than referring to it as the “Compromise of 1850,” refer to it as the “Appeasement of 1850”  - Dr. Michael Landis

The term “compromise” has positive connotations and Henry Clay is revered as a lion of Senate history for his role in the preventing of the Civil War for over forty years. In fact, APUSH curriculum calls the unit leading up to Civil War, “5.6: A Failure to Compromise” as if wishing Henry Clay and his friends would have survived to 1860 to avoid the war.

Every APUSH textbook has “The Missouri Compromise” and “The Compromise of 1850” listed as vocabulary terms. Each of those textbooks uses a different word choice in later chapters. The same textbooks do not refer to Chamberlain’s negotiations with Adolf Hitler in 1938 as the “Czech Compromise” or the “Compromise of 1938.” The best selling APUSH textbook, The American Pageant, bemoans the “betrayal of Czechoslovakians” and equates Chamberlain’s negotiation with Hitler as being the equivalent of handing over the Czechs to a “cannibal.” The word every APUSH textbook uses for negotiations with Adolf Hitler is APPEASEMENT.

Appeasement: “to yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort at the expense of justice.”

Appeasement is absolutely the right term to describe what happened in Eastern Europe in 1938.

The deal Congress made in 1820 (and in 1850 & 1787) extended the institution of slavery into territory where it had not previously existed. This is the equivalent of making a deal to legalize rape, murder, human trafficking, and kidnapping. This more than meets the definition of “a conciliatory effort at the expense of justice.”

The word choices we make as educators are very important. When we tell students that Hitler was “appeased,” we are de-legitimizing his cause. When we describe “compromises” with slaveholders, their white supremacist cause is normalized and legitimized.

Notes

This is not a full lesson. Add these slides as supplementary materials to your already existing lesson on the topic. They can also be assigned as homework. Either way, they lead to great class discussion. If this message does not fit in 4.3, the same message can easily be applied to your study of the Constitutional Convention or road to the Civil War in the 1850s.