Chapter 10

When Adela, Marcie, and I entered the American History class, I knew that I was going to be confronted by Larry Scott again, not to mention Ms. Howard, but I didn’t know if they would get along better than they did before. I hoped for the best, but I had real worries about them. Larry seemed to be trying to change, but he had just assaulted me that very morning, so it was a real “touch and go” deal where he was concerned. I feared for Ms. Howard’s sake, in case he slid back to his old ways. What if he didn’t take well to Trista taking Kyle back as an additional lover, for instance?

I braced myself for the worst, only to be greeted by a very loving kiss on the lips by Ms. Howard, in full view of the entire class. Then I watched as Larry Scott actually kissed her hand and apologized in front of everyone for his recent misconduct toward her and others. I got the impression that not only was he sincere, but he had left a real impact on her as well. She was still obviously nervous around him, but she calmed down and breathed a sigh of relief, as did Adela, Marcie, and me.

“Now, with those issues resolved, perhaps we can learn some American History. Now, if only the Southern whites could have handled things as maturely as Mr. Scott just did, perhaps a lot of trouble could have been avoided, but, of course, it wasn’t quite so easy for them to mend their ways. They didn’t have the benefit of social pressure and influence on their values to reform. In fact, it was quite the opposite, as their social mores were still heavily affected by the worldview of the antebellum South. That worldview was set forth most succinctly by Confederate Vice President Alexander H. Stephens in his notorious ‘cornerstone’ speech, in which he stated that ‘Our new government is founded upon exactly [this] idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests upon the great truth, that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery -- subordination to the superior race -- is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth’... ,” Ms. Howard continued, everything seemingly back as it should be.

“Wait, didn’t the South secede over states’ rights and economic issues as much as about slavery and race?” I heard Chrissy Fairbanks object to Ms. Howard’s opening remarks.

Chrissy Fairbanks was a classic case of how a small amount of information, embellished and distorted, can lead to a sincerely misguided person. In this case, it was no shock, as she was a transplanted Mississippian. She had been, no doubt, taught much of her life all of the usual Lost Cause arguments, that the South seceded because of tariffs, that it left over too much centralized government, that Lincoln was insincere about his opposition to slavery (due to a misunderstanding about his earlier statements regarding the purpose of the war), and that the South would have ultimately freed its slaves after victory. This was typical for much of the Southern revisionist viewpoint and interpretation of the Civil War and its meaning. To me, and obviously to Ms. Howard, this was very much inaccurate.

“Ms. Fairbanks, trust me, I am very familiar with such perspectives on the Civil War, and no doubt that’s what you’ve heard your whole young life. However, consider this. When Lincoln was elected, he was the nominee of a party dedicated to essentially cutting slavery off at the knees, trapping it in the South where it could not expand. He was also one of two candidates who had angered the South a great deal, the other one being Stephen A. Douglas, which had led to a split in the Democratic Party between its Northern and Southern wings.

“Really, if you look back to that election and the threats to secede well before it, one issue, just one, motivated the breakup of the Democratic Party, and later of the Union, and it was a very temporary split. That issue was slavery. The Republican Party considered tariffs and trade policy important, yes, but that issue didn’t distinguish it from the Whigs, who had collapsed over, you guessed it, slavery. Economic policy was a matter of regional self-interest. It wasn’t an inspiring, unifying issue for much of the North. It wasn’t a moral issue or a rallying cry like opposition to slavery. It didn’t divide the nation as slavery did, North from South. It wasn’t polarizing like slavery.

“And, yes, not all of the North shared abolitionist sentiment. However, much of the North was firmly opposed to the idea of slavery expanding with the country. This was part of why much of the North was resistant to the Mexican War, aside from questions of legality and morality about a possible war of aggression. To the South, that was anathema, of course. If slavery didn’t expand, their influence in Congress would continue to shrink and over time, they could be outvoted by the North so much that slavery could be abolished when the North was ready to do it.

“The Southern politicians knew this. They couldn’t take that chance. It wasn’t just about land. It was ultimately about power, about votes in Congress, and the South was already losing ground in the House. They had held the White House through sympathetic Northern Democrats like Pierce and Buchanan, but if a Republican took the White House, the Republicans had a strong chance of ensuring that all new states were free rather than slave. If nothing else, the President could veto new slave states for years to come, stall for time until free state people took over said territories, and they had a lot more people going into the territories than the South did.

“Finally, one need only look at the ordinances of secession to read, in their own words, what the Southern secessionists said was their reason for leaving the Union. In every case that I can cite off hand, they admitted proudly that they were seceding to preserve slavery. So, no, Lincoln wasn’t trying to kill slavery outright, but he was trying to save the Union, and the survival of the Union was death for slavery on the installment plan. The South knew it. Since they refused to return for that reason, Lincoln simply moved up the timetable on abolition to crush secession, and it worked.

“Also consider that the freed slaves wouldn’t have just enlisted in the Union Army to restore the Union. They would only have risked their lives to set their brothers and sisters free and to end the bondage that had enslaved them. The idea of the Union was an abstraction, but the enslavement of their friends and family was a reality, one that they knew all too well. Sure, Lincoln was racist in his own way, but they didn’t know that. They only knew that he had given them a chance to set their loved ones free,” Ms. Howard explained to Chrissy Fairbanks, who blushed at having heard a very different side of the issue.

“If it makes you feel any better, Chrissy, I heard similar things as you did growing up. I just learned differently over time. Of course, it also affected my sympathies that in my own family, there was someone descended from slaves. My elder, adopted sister Becky. This tended to make me more resistant to the Lost Cause view of the Civil War, you see. My parents tended to think like you, as did others in my former church. I just had a hard time accepting them because I had a black sister that I loved very much, and the idea that someone would keep her against her will was very disturbing to me. Trust me, it’s a learning curve for a lot of us,” I explained for my part.

“If the Civil War and secession had been about states’ rights, Chrissy, why did Northern liberty laws resisting and nullifying the Fugitive Slave Act offend the South so much? That was an exercise of states’ rights by the North, something that they claimed to support, yet they insisted that the Federal Government overrule those states and enforce the Fugitive Slave Act, anyway. If it had been about states’ rights, why didn’t the Confederate Constitution allow secession or give states a choice about being free states or slave states? The Confederate Constitution forbade any states to outlaw slavery, not just the Confederate Government itself. This makes it plain to me that slavery was the pivotal issue of the war, the main cause of it, and the main matter at stake, to be resolved by it, as it was the cause of secession,” I concurred with Ms. Howard on this point.

“Very good supplemental arguments, Mr. Smythe. It’s quite clear that you’ve studied a bit on your own. Now, Ms. Fairbanks, I don’t want you to think that we’re beating you up. I understand that, for the average Southern farmer and shopkeeper, it was something different, and even for Robert E. Lee and A.P. Hill, slavery was distasteful. Yet they did fight for a slaveholding republic, one created by slave states to maintain slavery. I understand that, for the average Confederate soldier, this was a defense of hearth and home. I get that.

“Robert E. Lee even disagreed with secession, yet he couldn’t fight his friends, neighbors, and family. He couldn’t fight his home state. Of course, he wasn’t as anti-slavery before the war as he seemed to become later on. Quite the opposite, in fact. We have to factor in that he might have undergone an epiphany of sorts due to the conditions of the war and seeing the black Union troops fight for their cause against his men.

“Quite simply, Ms. Fairbanks, half-truths have distorted things about the Civil War and created a lot of confusion. You’re not alone and you’re not stupid. You were just misinformed about some things. It happens. Southern revisionists are very good at persuading people that they’re right, that the Southern cause was a righteous war for national liberation by the Confederate Army, that sadly failed because of a Northern attrition strategy. They’re very convincing, but if you do the actual research, well, you can easily discover otherwise.

“If you don’t believe me, just read the ordinances of secession for yourself. They’re quite open about their motives for leaving the Union. They don’t mask or hide them at all. I’m not trying to bully you, Ms. Fairbanks, but I am trying to teach history, and that does mean teaching facts. It’s to your advantage to learn the true history of the Civil War and other periods of our history, and I think that you have the courage and intelligence to do so. The very fact that you bravely challenged me to assert what you thought was fact shows that you’re concerned with countering what you think is error. That’s a good start. Just do the research and you’ll be better informed,” Ms. Howard continued.

“Wasn’t this a class for post-Civil War U.S. History? Reconstruction and onward?” Marcie noted.

“Yes and it remains so, but you can’t discuss that without at least reviewing the Civil War a bit. There is a sharp divide in our history between the two halves or parts, before the war and after it. It was a gash, a chasm, and it marks a drastic change in how we view our nation. Prior to the war, it was a union of states more than a nation. After it, we were definitely a republic, a nation, rather than a mere confederation. Now, who can tell me who had the first plan for Reconstruction?” Ms. Howard continued, much of the class now consisting of Q and A of that sort, at least for review of the topic.

The whole time, though, Ms. Howard looked at me, as did Chrissy, and of course, Adela, Marcie, Jordan, and Larry, with some apparent admiration. I think that Chrissy liked that I let her down easy rather than poked fun at and insulted her and her Southern origins. I had shown empathy and consideration, and I even smiled back whenever she smiled at me. I learned a little more when the bell rang and Chrissy nervously slipped me a note.

It read, “Thank you for being so nice about it all. I felt like a complete fool, but you and Ms. Howard were at least kind about it. Is it true that you have to agree to every request?”

“You’re welcome and it’s every ‘reasonable’ request. Why do you ask?” I wrote back on the note and handed it back to her.

“Would it be reasonable to ask you to take my virginity after school, at the pool?” Chrissy asked me, much to my shock ... I had been propositioned a lot, but never specifically to deflower a virgin.

“Which virginity?” I teased her on the note.

“The main one. I want my cherry popped by you. Not just because you were nice or smart, but because you clearly know how to make girls happy ... and because you are nice AND smart. I bet that the teacher wants to fuck you and I don’t blame her one bit. You’re also confident without being cocky or arrogant. Pretty please?” Chrissy pleaded with me and I replied by kissing her directly on the lips, which made her blush.

“Sweetie, it would be my pleasure,” I winked at her as Chloe, Sarah, and Katrina followed me into Algebra class, causing me to kiss each of my other lovers goodbye for the next hour or so, the final class of the day.

Andrew Corbin followed in short order, as did Ryan Sommers, who found himself more than accepting of Andrew’s hands on his ass. Mr. Wang noticed, as did the girls with me, but we also caught Mr. Wang staring closely at several of the girls, though mostly at Chloe. He clearly tried not to stare too much, but his bulge grew as he taught the class and Chloe went out of her way to encourage him. I didn’t tell her to do that, but I got the impression that she wanted him to yield to temptation, and frankly, I agreed with her. All of the other teachers were going to get some action, sooner or later. Why not Mr. Wang?

Class was otherwise uneventful, the lesson very much the sort of teaching that Mr. Wang excelled at, of course, and that seemed to be that. Even so, he kept trying not to stare too much at Chloe, fighting his urges as his rod remained quite stiff. When the bell rang, he almost darted out the door, not even giving out homework, but Chloe looked at me, I nodded, and she stood directly in his path.

“Hey, don’t block the teacher, Ms. Zamora!” Mr. Wang half-seriously insisted, a bit puzzled by her actions, until, that was, she unzipped his pants and fished out his cock with her lips wide open.

“Shhh ... you need this, teacher. An apple is just not going to cut it, but how do you like them apples?” Chloe winked at him while we watched in fascination, our last deadline over with for the day.

Mr. Wang’s ... well, wang, looked ready to burst, along with his balls, as Chloe worked her magic on his private parts with her tongue. He couldn’t help himself. He found himself fucking her face and she wouldn’t let go of his dick. He was too far gone, and it wasn’t as long or fancy of a blowjob as one might have hoped, but given his blue balls, that was understandable. Before we knew it, he shuddered, shivered, and spurted out a massive moneyshot down her throat, which she swallowed without hesitation.