First, to put it as bluntly as possible: I screwed up badly
in writing one of my recent public scholarly op eds, a
piece for Talking Points Memo on the history of Muslim American communities
in Revolutionary South Carolina. That piece focused on a few key histories and
stories which I believed provide important context for the recent Chapel Hill shooting—but
the culminating such story, and one which gave the piece its title, involved
Charles Pinckney and an exchange during the Constitution ratification debate in
SC.
I remembered reading this exchange long ago in primary
documents related to those debates—ever since I read it, the exchange had stuck
out to me as a singular moment that condenses and exemplifies such broader
histories from the era. Perhaps because it had stuck out to me for so long, or
perhaps because I was writing the piece quickly in order to connect and respond
to this current event, I didn’t try to confirm the exchange in any available
online sources (which include numerous transcripts of those historical
debates). Whatever were the causes of my failure to do so, they’re neither
excuses nor justifications—I should have confirmed this specific history in
available sources; and when I found that I couldn’t do so, as I have indeed found
in trying to confirm the history in response to follow ups to my post, I should
have cut it and framed the broader histories instead.
So that’s the first and most important thing to say: I
should have confirmed this particular detail, not with my imperfect memory but
in any and all available sources right now. I’m very sorry that I didn’t do so,
and thus that my piece offered a possibly inaccurate and certainly imprecise
version of this important history.
I want to make sure to say two other things as well. First,
I have published nearly 1500 online pieces in the last 4.5 years—almost 1400 on
my daily AmericanStudies blog
since November 2010, and lots of others on a wide variety of sites in the last
couple years, including TPM. I believe in the vast, vast majority of those I
have indeed confirmed all of my details in all available sources (hard copies
when I have or have access to them, online when I don’t), not trusting my
memory or perspective but rather verifying as fully as possible all of what I’m
writing.
Second, though, it’s not enough to say “vast, vast majority”
there. Such confirmation is important in each and every post and piece, in
every case, all of the time. In moving toward producing more immediate and current
public scholarship, engaged as quickly as possible in finding contexts for what’s
happening now, I was perhaps in danger of forgetting that, or at least of
minimizing its importance in favor of getting things out right now. Or at the
very least, I clearly did so in this particular instance. And I promise you, promise
myself, and promise the community of public AmericanStudiers of which I’m
working to be part, that I will make sure from now on that every piece I write
is as fully sourced and supported as possible.
Thanks for reading, and I welcome any feedback,
Ben
