Two sentences that best typify the central idea of Marilynne Robinson’s “McGuffey and The Abolitionists” are at the very end of the first paragraph since the initial passages of her essay collectively form an introduction to the heart of the argument. Throughout her essay, Robinson explicitly discusses the idea that while the actual past is, of course, an immutable fact, it is frequently presented at the modern time through several filters of subjective interpretation that confound the true historical facts. The essay treats this idea particularly as it regards the inclusion of subtle messages about the abolitionist movement and other ‘radical’ ideas in the popular 19th-century textbooks named McGuffey’s readers. Certainly, the concept
