In class, we discussed the issue of Black Confederates and the Civil War. With this came the mass of confused information and made up reports. These made up reports were usually created to slander one side, or build up the reputation of the other. Because of this, the issue of “can we really trust this?” comes up. Back during the Civil War Era, many sources were from newspapers. Articles were written by journalists who claimed to be at the scene of the battle, but may not really have been. A good example was brought up by Professor O’Malley. Fredrick Douglas believed that Black soldiers fought for the confederate army. This is a claim that needs a primary source, which he believe that he had. Unfortunately, his primary source was not to be trusted either. This issue still continues today, especially with the rise in the internet.

Anyone can write a story and claim that they were there. There is no need for fact checking or citing sources, since most people will believe you anyway. Because of this, many people think they can just search an issue or topic and have all of the answers on this. Essentially, they think they have become an expert on the subject when they are not qualified to be one. This apparently upset a lot of scholars and professors, I don’t really blame them. If you worked so hard to be certified in a field of study just to be shot down by someone who read a Wikipedia article, you would be upset too. But there is a more positive way to look at this.

Many of these people are curious to learn, or find out about a particular subject. They show some interest in it, so they decide to look up facts about it. Although they mean well, they may get too cocky and try to become the expert of the subject just by doing multiple google searches. This is the stage where the person needs to be stopped by a real scholar, and told that they will not be able to prove that these articles are actually true. If people are stopped early, and told that they need to use critical thinking, and maybe work with some professionals, this “issue” could be stopped. But is it really and issue? And are some scholars really to be trusted? Especially since we all hold a bias depending on nationality, race, etc. I think that’s the bigger question to be explored.