History, in any form, never ceases to amaze me or surprise me. There is always something new being discovered, often with information that should (but rarely does) rewrite our story as humans. When Hayley and I write, we, as much as we are able to in the constraints of time and explanation, delve into parts of history that are often, if not always, overlooked in lieu of propaganda.  When teaching history, I always strive to include the obscure bits that have been left to vanish (information that must be dug out through research like a festering thorn in the heel of the American story) rather than the straight rhetoric of mainstream propagandized history that has been the basis for misleading and boring students for over one hundred years.

History, all history, is often dark and mysterious, even tragic beyond the written word. It is also sensationalized, glamoured up and falsified to suit the ideology of a government, or other factions, to change the perception of “a truth” in its entirety. I use the term “a truth” (and I always say this in class) simply because there can never be “the truth” as a definite. Truth is a perspective, and no two people will have the same even in a situation or scenario. My truth won’t be yours, and yours won’t be mine; therefore, “a truth” is what we must come to terms with, and for that to occur, we must have the whole of the story.

The storyline of history is constantly changing through new evidence that is carefully documented, but sadly, never updated in traditional teaching. And so, we go along with the same old plodding timeline of this happened, then that happened, and it would seem, that in our vast world of Human Truth, only a few select players were ever at the helm that steered us to our current path. A truth, as Hayley and I see it, lies in the stories of those, who by literal blood, sweat and tears, built the world as we know it…those who were beaten down, enslaved, murdered, and forgotten in the name of progress; they are the true heroes of our world, of our American story.

~J.M.Bryant

Hayley Wade is a Northeast State Community College and East Tennessee State University graduate. She graduated with her Masters in History in 2019 from ETSU and pursued the education field. She now teaches Special Education at a local middle school, has published three academic texts, and is newly adjunct faculty at ETSU. She can often be found traveling with her husband, funding a new hobby, reading, or writing.