History was that subject that didn't sit well with me those days in school due to how vast it is, with many stories and dates to memorize. I felt very relieved migrating to science class and leaving history education for good.
Not that I don't like visiting what happened in the past for knowledge's sake, but it can just be so overwhelming when I have a lot of the past histories to read and memorize within a specific time. Up until now, I see it as a chore to assist my kids in reading their history notebooks for exams. There is always excessive information to know, and it's tiring, honestly.
That being said, there are many untold sides of history. Some of the histories we hear today are not completely true. This is because some of these people telling the stories leave some truth behind to suit what they want the masses to hear or believe. Of course, using their power to modify the raw truth and leave people to believe in whatever they hear; after all, we didn't experience whatever happened in the past with them, so it's easy to just believe them, thereby hating the wrong people or even cursing the wrong people for making life hard, as the case may be. No wonder the popular statement that history is told only by the victors, and because they will always say things in their favor, it may not always be accurate.
There is a piece of history that I believe is totally wrong, but everyone just thinks it's right, and that's the transatlantic slave trade. There were so many things that happened that they had to hide the fact, downplay it, and cover up. Most of them are not even something that is good for the ears, much less the eyes. Let me give you one example: in the field of medicine, the doctors then, the white people, they were using Black people for research.
They will subject them to a disease and study how it is progressing, a human being for that matter. Normally, they were supposed to use a rat or rabbit, but then, because of what was happening, nothing was stopping them. Someone may have syphilis; they will refuse to treat that person so that they will study the primary, secondary, and tertiary stages of the sickness. Meanwhile, syphilis even causes madness at the tertiary stage.
They were using pregnant women, like a baby in the womb being subjected as a lab rat. These are the things they covered up without mentioning it. They committed crimes against humanity but found a lot of reasons not to disclose it; however, there were terrible things that happened there.
The only way I think we could correct this perception is by being deliberate in researching more. It starts with you and me. Tell your own story, teach your kids every truth they should know about their roots, and limit the way we depend on history books we purchase out there, and maybe someday, the real untold history without modification will be uncovered.
This post is in response to the #Hive Learners community contest on the topic title, Tales Of History.
Images were taken from canva
