Race in Elementary Geography Textbooks: Examples from South Carolina, 1890–1927

Abstract

For most of the nineteenth century in the United States, a young learner’s first exposure to what we now call social studies came through the field of geography. Geography was—according to United States Commissioner of Education William Torrey Harris (1889–1906)—the most important subject after reading, writing, and mathematics. He lauded the way it gave students a “practical, real knowledge which will be useful later in life.”¹ This notion of practicality, coupled with the relative availability of pedaogical resources for teaching geography, made the subject more common-place in nineteenth-century grammar schools than history was.² Moreover, suggestions from the Committee of Ten’s Geography Conference in 1894 prompted educators to conceptualize the subject as a broader field than just physical geography; the report suggested that elementary geography include “astronomy, meteorology, zoology, botany, history, commerce, governments, races, religions, etc.”³ Called “home geography” in the primary grades, this curriculum emphasized the use of resources in the local community to teach about the social world, in order to provide a foundation for future scholastic work in history, geography, and the then fledgling field of anthropology.⁴ “Social units,” focused on subjects like communication, industry, and societal roles, held equal importance with lessons concerning physical geography.⁵