“History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read.  And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past.  On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do.  It could scarcely be otherwise, since it is to history that we owe our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.” – James Baldwin in Ebony Magazine article 1965 titled “White Man’s Guilt“.

As a family historian I agree with Baldw in that “we owe [history] our frames of reference, our identities, and our aspirations.” “. . . we carry it with us“. I find more and more this statement or quote to be true as I get older and continue to delve into the history of our country.