Friday, August 19, 2011

I remembered the funny thing The Artist said.....

So, yesterday I mentioned that The Artist puts me to sleep entertains me each night by asking me random questions while I'm trying to get The Adventurer to fall asleep, and I was all set to share one such question with you.....only I forgot.

Except now I remembered, so here you go.

The Artist is studying American History this year, a continuation from last year, and right now he's reading a book called Freedom Train about Harriet Tubman who herself escaped from slavery and then returned to The South over and over again to lead more and more slaves North to Freedom.

Now, having arrived at this, that does in fact mean he's covered the Civil War, a biography of Abraham Lincoln, etc. He knows about the time period, in other words.

So, he asked me why Brazil went and stole slaves from Africa.

I answered that all the countries who had slaves pretty much stole people from Africa, and I didn't know why. Perhaps because the people who were the slave owners felt that someone who looked really different from themselves was less of a person*.

He mulled that over and said something about being glad the US didn't have slaves.

I said that the US did have slaves.

"What?!? You mean.....what?! I thought slaves were just in the South???"

Yes, the south. The southern states of the United States, ie, southern America, not South America. 

"Wait....what?? You mean...Texas?? Texas might have had slaves?????" 

He was shocked, appalled, horrified, and all sorts of other things.

I was torn between being horrified that he mixed up this little fact so badly and wanting to laugh because it just figures that a kid living in South America would accidentally confuse the two terms. He was, after all, drawing on his personal frame of reference and "south" of the US is S. America, and by extension, Brazil. Honest mistake. Funny, hilarious in my "I just want to sleep" state of mind, but honest.

I did straighten things out, and then we talked about Harriet Tubman walking to Canada, and he did laugh at himself for mixing up "The South (of America)" with "South America" and then it was midnight and I was waking up to head to my bed.

Have your kids ever made little innocent, but hilarious, mistakes like that? 


*please rest assured that he knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, of the wrongness of this sort of thinking. By stating a historical fact I am in no way endorsing such a view. See previous post on Backing a Winner for my views on Equality for All should you have any doubts as to my thoughts on this.