What is Americas secret history?

Answer 1

I'm not sure there is one, although there was a History Channel documentary that used that title. Actually, the "secret" is that a number of the Founding Fathers were members of the Masons, a fraternal order that has been the subject of a lot of myth and speculation over the centuries. It's not much of a secret-- several books have been written about the founding fathers who were masons-- it's quite public information these days.

Historically, the Scottish Rite Masons were a pretty tolerant bunch, at a time when the idea of accepting and respecting non-Christians was very unusual. Still, some chapters of the masons did practice segregation, sad to say, and some chapters didn't allow Jews. But overall, the Masons could be described as an educated and independent group of men (it was and is for men only), a very structured fraternal organization with many rites and practices-- they were often misrepresented because their rituals were secret (unless you were a member, and even then, you weren't supposed to talk about them) and some people criticised them because they refused to align themselves with the dominant (Christian) religious tradition. You can easily find information about the Masons in any reputable encyclopaedia.