Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton Says Slavery Was ‘Necessary Evil’
In an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, citing the Founding Fathers, described slavery as a “necessary evil.”
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“We have to study the history of slavery and its role and impact on the development of our country because otherwise, we can’t understand our country,” Cotton told the paper. “As the Founding Fathers said, it was the necessary evil upon which the union was built, but the union was built in a way, as Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”
Cotton made those comments while
defending a bill he proposed that would ban federal funds for a project by the New York Times newspaper, aimed at revising the historical view of slavery.
Following a big wave of criticism from historians and other leading figures online, Cotton denied that he was calling the enslavement of Black people a “necessary evil.” He tweeted,
“I said that *the Founders viewed slavery as a necessary evil* and described how they put the evil institution on the path to extinction, a point frequently made by Lincoln.”
Meanwhile, Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her introductory essay to the NYT project, also addressed Cotton’s comments, saying:
“Imagine thinking a non-divisive curriculum is one that tells Black children the buying and selling of their ancestors, the rape, torture, and forced labor of their ancestors for PROFIT, was just a ‘necessary evil’ for the creation of the ‘noblest/ country the world has ever seen.”
She even replied to his latest tweet, saying:
“Were the Founders right or wrong … when they called slavery a ‘necessary evil upon which the Union was built”? Because either you agree with their assessment of slavery as necessary or you admit they were lying and it was just an evil and dishonorable choice. Which?”
Cotton has yet to respond to that tweet. Until then, let us know your thoughts on this in the comment box below!
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