By Zoe Huber-Weiss ’13, Staff Writer

The lights fade. The inspirational orchestral music steadily grows louder. A woman walks onstage in the darkness. The music reaches a peak just as she reaches her spot at center stage. A spotlight comes on in perfect synchronization with a cymbal crash. The woman raises her arms and proclaims, “We” — pauses for dramatic effect — “the People.” Oh, please…

During the annual sophomore Gettysburg trip a few days before Thanksgiving, the more cynical members of the grade (including myself) could be seen rolling their eyes at some of these overly sentimental exhibits. Take, for example, the show at the National Constitution Center called “Freedom Rising,” which happened exactly as described above and got even more melodramatic as it progressed. The show painted a picture of a revolution led by poor, humble American farmers against the elitist British: a struggle for liberty and humanity.

The show, like most other exhibits on the American Revolution, neglected to address the fact that the revolution was also driven by the economic desires of the merchant class. According to Alan Brinkley, author of American History: A Survey (the Newark Academy AP US History textbook), most of the uproar over British behavior was a result of colonists’ anger about raised British taxes; restrictions on colonists’ actual liberties provoked relatively calm reactions. The exhibits simply ignored these facts and idealized the American colonists’ side in a blatantly biased manner.

Gettysburg itself was no better. There, the Union soldiers were portrayed as the good guys and the Confederates as the bad guys, seeking only to maintain ownership of their slaves. Most exhibits in Gettysburg failed to mention the issue of states’ rights versus federal power, which was a driving force behind Southern secession; as a precursor to seceding, Southern states tried to convince the federal government to allow them to nullify any act of Congress, severely diminishing the power of the legislature. The exhibits also failed to mention the rising poverty level in the South due to a Northern monopoly on manufacturing, which was an additional contributing factor in the Civil War. While extolling the virtues of the Union side, the museum condemned the Confederate side by not addressing their “less” honorable motives for war.

In both Philadelphia and Gettysburg, the museum exhibits were skewed to give students a sense of righteous justification about the American Revolution and the Civil War. Going to Newark Academy, a school that prides itself on academic integrity, I know that I have access to a much fuller education than many people are fortunate to have, and I appreciate that rare chance. However, in knowing how rare my situation of fortune may be, visiting these museums slightly alarmed me. If these museum exhibits are the standard for the American population at large whose members may not necessarily have access to an unbiased education like the one offered at Newark Academy, then most museum visitors are being presented a skewed version of history.

While this may not sound terrible to students who have critical, inquisitive minds and who often question the relevance of their classes,  this idealistic view of history can have a direct influence on modern life. Take, for example, members of the Tea Party movement, who claim the need for our country to return to being a strictly Constitutional America. The American Constitution itself, excluding the amendments that follow it, allows for slaves and has no Bill of Rights, and therefore no freedom of speech, religion, etc. The completely idealized presentation of the American Revolution and what drove it has led to a modern-day movement that has gained many followers with its talk of freedom and liberty as it was assumed to be with the Founding Fathers. While the sentimental exhibits at the museums in Philadelphia and Gettysburg do cause a swell of patriotism, the one-sided presentation and consideration of our country’s history also has decidedly negative effects that must be addressed.