Social Studies TEKS Review

Comments by Dr. Carole Hornsby Haynes

February 24, 2026  

CHH Note: Work Group comments indicate that nearly all the standards contain an excessive amount of content. I concur and suggest they be pared down to only the most important issues and events with focus on “cause and effect.”  

My purpose for this review is to highlight standards most likely to have political and racial bias. This bias is especially found in the Civil War era and the Civil Rights movement. NOTE: I have not included all of the areas because of the excessive amount of content already. Unless the bias is removed, the new instructional materials will continue what is already in textbooks: 1) The central role of the North in slavery and sectional divisions is always ignored, 2) The South was -- and still is – racist and the Civil War was caused by Southern states wanting to keep slavery, 3) The fact that some Southern slave owners were black is never mentioned. 

This message continues the animosity against the “treasonous” and “racist” white South. This is why the Marxist cultural revolution substituted race for class conflict of worker proletariat (oppressed) – Critical Race Theory. 

Because education has become indoctrination, I have included comments with facts that can be found in government and original documents of that period instead of the revisionist history we’re now using.  

Grade 1 – page 11

7. Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. “Retell the story of Abraham Lincoln, president who worked to end slavery and protect liberty in America.”  

CHH:  This standard is a false statement. 

Fact: Lincoln should not be considered as someone who fought from the beginning to end slavery. Lincoln admitted, in several letters and speeches, that he was waging war against the South to prevent secession, not to abolish slavery. He made this clear in his letter to Horace Greeley in 1862:  

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union.”

Lincoln’s views “changed” on slavery only when it became politically expedient. Lincoln was a racist in a time where racism was commonplace; one can simply reference the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates for corroboration of this. He confirmed his belief in several speeches and in his First Inaugural Address. He publicly supported the Corwin Amendment which would have explicitly prevented the abolition of slavery in any of the states forever. 

Lincoln tried, especially in the first years of the war, to ensure that slaves belonging to union forces were not emancipated. He worked until the end of his life to arrange colonization of former slaves in Africa.  

Grade 2 – page 19

16. People of the civil war

A. “Identify: a war between citizens of the same country.” 

CHH:   This definition is incorrect. Civil wars by definition are wars waged between two or more factions within a country struggling for control of the government. But Robert E. Lee and the Southern states were not fighting to take over the government of Abraham Lincoln. 

16.B. “Explain: Slavery took away people’s freedom and treated Africans as property instead of human beings. The Civil War happened because some states wanted to keep slavery while others wanted it to end. The war was fought to decide whether slavery would continue in the United States.” 

CHH #1: The second and third sentences of the standard are totally false and perpetuate the myth that Southerners are white racists and oppressors. It implies that the North was not tied to slavery. 

Background: From the 1870s to the late 1950s, it was conceded that the North fought to preserve the Union and the Southerner fought for liberty and to defend his home. Around 1960, the Democratic Party, led by Lyndon B. Johnson, introduced the concept of identity politics that benefited the party. In the election of 1956, 75% of African-Americans voted Republican. By 1964, more than 90% voted Democrat and they have been doing so until 2020. As part of their effort to control and manipulate the black vote, Democrats have promoted the myth the Civil War was all about slavery. 

Fact: The wealth of the entire North was heavily linked to slavery. Cotton created New York. Before the Civil War, New York City’s fortunes were considered to be inseparable from those of the cotton producing states. The economic links to slavery in Connecticut were deeply entertwined with its religious, political, and educational institutions. Slavery was part of the social contract. From seed to cloth, Northern merchants, shippers, and financial institutions -- many based in New York -- controlled nearly every aspect of cotton production and trade. By 1860, New England was home to 472 cotton mills. Fortunes were created from slavery by those whose names we recognize including the Lerhman brothers, Charles Tiffany, Junius Morgan (father of J. Pierpont), and John Jacob Astor. The South’s threats to secede became a nightmare for the textile industry. New York even considered seceding along with the South. 

Because money from the South was critical, Northern businessmen concluded the Union must be preserved. It was all about preserving the Northern economy at the expense of the South. Slavery was, at best, a peripheral issue. 

(From It Wasn’t About Slavery by distinguished military historian Samuel Mitcham): 

No political party advocated freeing the slaves in the presidential election of 1860. The Republican Party platform opposed the expansion of slavery to the western states, but it did not embrace abolition.

The real cause of the war was a dispute over money and self-determination. 

Before the Civil War, the South financed most of the federal government – because the federal government was funded by tariffs, which were paid disproportionately by the agricultural South that imported manufactured goods. Yet nearly all federal government spending and subsidies benefited the North. 

The Southern states wanted a more limited federal government and lower tariffs – the ideals of Thomas Jefferson – and when the Southern states could not get that, they opted for independence from the Union. 

Lincoln was unprepared when the Southern states seceded and force was the only way to bring them --and their tariff money -- back. So he went to war. 

16.B. “Explain: Slavery took away people’s freedom and treated Africans as property instead of human beings. The Civil War happened because some states wanted to keep slavery while others wanted it to end. The war was fought to decide whether slavery would continue in the United States.” 

CHH #2 –Add Corwin Amendment to the standards. There is no reference to the Corwin Amendment in these standards yet it is of major importance. 

Fact: If the war was fought because Southern states wanted to keep slavery, then why did Southern states reject the opportunity for perpetual slavery? 

Between December 1860 and April 1861, seven states seceded. The Congress prepared a compromise to bring the seceded states back into the Union, or to prevent the others from seceding. The resolution passed both the House and the Senate and Democratic President Buchanan signed the Amendment on his last day in office. The new President Lincoln sent a copy of the amendment to governors of all the States. Not one of the states that had left the Union returned and later four more seceded. 

16.C. “Explain [that] Abraham Lincoln was the president who worked to end slavery.” 

CHH: See comments for Grade 1, 7. “Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.” 

Grade 6 – page 40

8. Texas, the Civil War, and Reconstruction

8. B. “Analyze Causes of the American Civil War” (WG comment: Causes are not specifically listed, including tariff policy, slavery, states rights) 

CHH:  Slavery should not be listed as a cause of the Civil War. See comments for Grade 2, 16.B. 

8.D. “Analyze important events that led to the Civil War.” (founding of the Republican Party, election of Abraham Lincoln, secession of South Carolina, Ft. Sumter) 

CHH:  Secession. Secession is not mentioned in the standards. Because it is a highly contentious topic today with white Southerners branded as traitors, it must be addressed. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution forbids secession or that such action is treasonous. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, who presided over the circuit court in Virginia, was reluctant to bring Jefferson Davis to trial for treason, believing it would be a legal and political mistake.  

"If you bring these leaders to trial, it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution, secession is not rebellion. His [Jefferson Davis] capture was a mistake. His trial will be a greater one. We cannot convict him of treason. Secession is settled. Let it stay settled." 

CHH:  Founding of the Republican Party. The Republican Party was formed in 1854 by a coalition of anti-slavery groups, primarily including Northern Whigs, Free-Soilers, and anti-Nebraska Democrats. This movement was driven by opposition to the expansion of slavery and aimed to promote a strong federal government with high tariffs that favored northern economic interests.  The party platform opposed the expansion of slavery to the western states, but it did not embrace abolition. 

Another founding block of the Republican party was German refugees from the 1848 revolutions. Lincoln cultivated this socialist cohort early by secretly subsidizing its newspapers and involving its leaders as activists in his behalf.

Election of Abraham Lincoln & Secession of South Carolina. In his First Inaugural Address on March 4, 1861, Lincoln said, “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.” 

Yet the speech set the stage for war. Lincoln was determined to collect tariffs from the ports of the seceding states. The speech sounded conciliatory but Lincoln said he would use federal power to hold federal property (the forts) and “to collect the duties and impost; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion.” Southerners immediately saw the meaning behind Lincoln’s words. 

The tariff was a major issue because most of the federal government’s revenue came from a tariff on imported goods with most of it paid by the South and most of spent on Northern public works and industrial subsidies. The Morrill Tariff pushed the percentage on Southern imports even higher than before and protected Northern industries at the expense of southern and western states. 

With the election of Lincoln and the new Morrill Tariff, Southern leaders in South Carolina and the Gulf States began calling for secession;South Carolina seceded in December 1860. 

CHH:  Ft. Sumter. Most textbooks claim the South started the war by firing on Fort Sumter because that is the story that Lincoln publicized to gain Northern support for war. Educaton is indoctrination students and creating animosity against the “racist white” South and racial divisiveness. 

Fact: According to Northern records and documents, Lincoln maneuvered Confederate leadership into firing on Ft. Sumter, believing the act would inflame the North and allow him to go to war to force the states back into the union. 

Armistices were entered into between South Carolina’s government and the U.S. government and Florida and the U.S. government. It was agreed the forts should neither be garrisoned nor provisioned so long as these armistices continued in force. Papers were filed in the United States Army and Navy Departments. 

Despite this armistice, Lincoln issued a series of secret orders. Major Robert Anderson, commander of the U.S. troops stationed at Charleston, South Carolina’s Fort Moultrie, was to take his men out of Fort Moultrie and into the island fort, Fort Sumter, at night. Prior to his inauguration, Lincoln sent a message to General Winfield Scott to hold or retake the forts upon his inauguration on March 4, 1861. 

On March 12 Lincoln directed Cabinet member Montgomery Blair to telegraph Captain G. V. Fox to come to Washington to arrange for reinforcing Fort Sumter. On March 15, Fox went to Fort Sumter and arranged with Major Anderson for reinforcement. 

On March 29, while the armistice was still in place, Lincoln, without Cabinet consent, ordered three ships with men and provisions to Ft. Sumter. A fourth ship was sent to Pensacola, Florida on April 7. Lincoln told Seward to notify the Confederate Peace Commissioners in Washington “that they had no design to reinforce Fort Sumter.”  

On April 8, South Carolina was officially informed that “an attempt would be made to supply Fort Sumter, peaceably if they could, forcibly if they must.” Eight armed vessels with soldiers aboard had been sent to sustain the notification. They were slowed by an unexpected storm at sea which gave the Confederate authorities enough time to respond.  

The purpose was to secure Fort Sumter, to close the port with the warships, to reduce Charleston by bombardment if necessary, to land troops from transports, and crush “The Rebellion” by overthrowing South Carolina.  

When the Confederate government was informed, General Beauregard was ordered to demand Anderson’s surrender of ort Sumter within a specified time or be fired upon. Anderson refused. On April 12, the Confederates opened fire on the fort and the Union soldiers returned their fire. On April 14, Anderson surrendered and the Union troops left the fort.  

To obtain public support, Lincoln announced the South had fired on the U.S. flag. The general public of the North had felt they should allow the South to leave the Union in peace. Most felt that it would be unlawful to try to coerce the Southern States to remain in the Union if it was against their will.  

Without calling a Cabinet meeting or getting Congressional approval, Lincoln proceeded with war plans.  

8.G. “Analyze Abraham Lincoln (The Gettysburg Address, The Emancipation Proclamation, Second Inaugural Address, Lincoln’s Assassination)” 

CHH: Gettysburg Address. This standard is politically proper so it is unlikely the curriculum will reflect the truth that the “new nation” was a big centralized, not our federal republic.

Fact: In his closing statement,“this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom,” Lincoln signaled a change in our government.  Our Founders’ federal republic with limited government and states rights was replaced by a new powerful centralized government. The final outcome of the Civil War was the consolidation of federal power and neuteringof the 9th and 10th Amendments. 

Emancipation Proclamation. The standard perpetuates the myth that Lincoln freed the slaves with this executive order.  

Fact: This executive order never freed any slaves because it had no constitutional authority to do so.It “freed” slaves where Lincoln had no authority and left slavery in areas under federal control.  

Lincoln acknowledged the executive order was a war strategy to initiate slave insurrections in the South and to stop Europe from militarily aiding the Southern Confederacy. Knowing that Europe would not accept forcing states to return to the Union for economic reasons, Lincoln used the exective order to change the purpose of the war to the ending of slavery. 

The proclamation provided a 100 day window for seceded states to return to the union or their slaves would be “freed.” If the intention of the document was to free the slaves in the Southern Confederacy, why not do so immediately?If the goal was to free slaves, then why was the federal government willing to keep slavery in return for the return of seceded states? 

Second Inaugural Address. I suggest omitting the speech. The speech frames the war as divine punishment for slavery. Nothing was said about the purposeful devastation of Southern life and property by Union forces. There is far too much content already and getting into the points I’ve listed below will take too much class time and is far too much for most 6th graders.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do allwhich may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.” 

(“with malice towards none”) Sherman and his fellow soldiers bombarded much of the South into oblivion, all under the approval of Lincoln. Southern slaves were denied medical resources due to the Union blockade. The Shenandoah Valley and its entire region and inhabitants were burned out by Union soldiers. 

(“with charity for all”) Jefferson Davis survived the assassination attempt by Ulric Dahlgren who was sent by the Lincoln administration to destroy the Confederate capitol and kill the entire cabinet.

(“bind up the nation’s wounds”) Southern towns, farms, homes, and crops were burned so that everyone, including freed slaves, was starving and without shelter. Women, even slave women, were raped. 

(“to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan”) Many became widows and orphans because of the Union blockade which denied crucial medical supplies to Union prisoners as it did for slaves, which contributed to the very high death rate in camps such as Andersonville. Deserters were shot, murdered by the federal government for refusing to comply with its bidding. The famous Gettysburg troops returned to New York and indiscriminately shot draft protestors, even women and children.  

10. Civil Rights. Understand the Civil Rights Movement – page 51

10. H. “Describe the use of marches and boycotts and analyze legal cases including Brown v. Board of Education.”  

CHH:  To avoid bias, the standard must specifically include both North and South. 

Question: Will an analysis of Brown v. Board of Education include the federal government’s response to the North’s resistance? Much has been written about the resistance by Southern governors but little to nothing about the North.  

Fact: The official line was the North favored black civil rights; it was only the South that sytematically persecuted blacks and was responsible for the subsequent busing, rioting, demonstrations and lawsuits. Despite all the evidece to the contrary, the media en masse succeeded in preserving the national image of the South as the sole source of discrimination against blacks. 

Martin Luther King and his SCLS attempted to implement racial integration in the North, starting with demonstrations in Chicago in 1966. Most of the media, the federal government, and other key liberals immediately withdrew their support from the SCLC; and with the extreme hostility by white Chicagoans, the SCLS’s attempt failed miserably.  

11. Civil Rights Movement - Understand Lyndon B. Johnson - page 51

11. C. “Internal migration, changes in American cities, expansion of the suburbs, urban riots, Baby Boom”  

CHH:  To avoid bias, the standard must specifically include both North and South.  

U.S. History Studies – page 100

6. National Expansion and Reform - Understand National Expansion and Reform

6.B. “Trace westward expansion. Explain the contribution of American expansion to the Civil War.” 

CHH:  This standard will perpetuate the myth that Southern states wanted to expand slavery to western territories, to reignite the slave trade, and seceded to keep and expand slavery. 

Fact: The West became a battleground where Northern interests tried to stossp the expansion of slavery.The Confederate Constitution outlawed the importation of slaves but Southerners wanted to preserve states’ rights and liberty without a centralized despotism by the Republican Party. They wanted the extension of states’ rights, regardless of whether those states adopted slavery. 

The Republican agenda was to keep blacks out of western territories. Some Northern states banned blacks from even entering their jurisdiction, others had discriminatory and restrictive laws directed and enforced against black people, and none wanted to compete with black slave labor in the west. The west was to be kept for whites to live off Republican federal land grants, and to become industrialized. Southern agrarians were to be fenced into the South; otherwise, they would bring their despised black slaves along with them. 

On October 16, 1854, Lincoln stated, “The whole nation is interested that the best use shall be made of these (new western) territories. We want them for the homes of free white people.”  

“We, the Republican Party, are the white man’s party. We are for the free white man, and for making white labor acceptable and honorable, which it can never be when Negro slave labor is brought into competition with it.” - Lyman Trumbull, Illinois Republican United States Senator, quoted in The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War by Kenneth M. Stampp Oxford U Press 1981 

7. National Expansion and Reform - Understand Antebellum Economy, Society, Culture

7.B. “Describe slave life on plantations and farms across the South.” 

CHH:  This is clearly biased. The standard should include both North and South. Slavery existed in the North even during the war with reports of brutal treatment by Northern slave holders. 

8. Sectionalism, Civil War, and Reconstruction – page 101

8.A. “Compare North and South different economies and cultures. Rationale: explain the central role of the expansion of slavery in causing sectionalism, disagreement over states' rights, and the Civil War.” 

CHH:  Neither slavery nor its expansion played a central role in causing the Civil War. See comments for Grade 2, 16.B. and U.S. History Studies 6.B. 

8.B. “Identify key developments leading to the Civil War.” WG: Notable absences are tariffs and the Nullification Crisis.” 

CHH:  Include the Tariff of Abominations, the Morrill Tariff, and the Nullification Crisis. 

8.C. “Identify and explain key Civil War events.” (Emancipation Proclamation and battles) 

CHH: Emancipation Proclamation. See comments for Grade 6.8.G. 

9. Rise of Industrial America – page 104

9.G. “Trace post Civil War struggles of African Americans and women to gain and retain basic civil rights, including Jim Crow laws.” 

CHH: This standard is biased. 

Fact: Jim Crow laws predated the Confederacy with their origins in the North and led to Plessy v. Ferguson.

The story can be found in "Separate: The Story of Plessy v. Ferguson, and America’s Journey from Slavery to Segregation" by Steve Luxenberg, associate editor of the Washington Post. 

“[s]eparation had no role in the South before the Civil War… It was the free and conflicted North that gave birth to separation… One of those birthplaces was the Massachusetts town of Salem.” Even though blacks comprised but one percent of Massachusetts’s population, “Jim Crow” became a “commonly understood phrase in New England’s lexicon” by the late 1830s. On September 8, 1841, Frederick Douglass himself experienced Yankee tolerance when he was forcibly ejected off a white car on the way from Salem to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  

After the war the Union did not grant the free or recently freed black person the equality envisioned by many. Citizens of Michigan voted down black suffrage in 1868. In 1867 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, comprised entirely of white Republicans, handed down the decision for racial separation on their railroad cars.  

The Radical Republicans in Congress pushed through the Civil Rights Act of 1875, which immediately met stiff resistance and questions of constitutionality in North and South. In 1883, the U.S. Supreme Court itself declared the act unconstitutional.  

On June 7, 1892, Plessy boarded a white car in New Orleans with a ticket for Covington, sixty miles north on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. He was arrested when he refused to change cars. The case eventually went to the U.S. Supreme Court which handed down a 7-1 decision approving the “separate but equal.” In just 58 years the same court overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine with the case of Brown v. Board of Education.