Opinion

The Florida history standards are right about slavery

That Vice President Kamala Harris continues to outright lie about what is in Florida’s social studies standards is unsurprising. That so many in the media are giving her cover is a little disturbing.

Even some former conservatives are giving her cover. The View’s Alyssa Farah posted a picture of the standards (which read: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation). Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”). She then tweeted:

Human beings were literally taken from their homelands against their will & sold into labor like animals at auction. It doesn’t matter if they learned to code or learned astrophysics, it is the most dehumanizing institution & its offensive to suggest there was any benefit to it.

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This is simply a misreading of what the standards say. The standards do not say that some slaves benefited from slavery. The standards say that some slaves were taught skills and that those slaves benefited from having those skills. Which is true! Here is what the Library of Congress says:

It is important to remember, however, that while some enslaved people worked on large cotton plantations, others worked in other types of agriculture, including tobacco, hemp (for rope-making), corn, and livestock. In Southern cities, many worked at a variety of skilled trades as well as common laborers. It was not unusual for those working in the cities to put away enough money to buy their freedom. Indeed, Southern cities, as well as many in the North, had large free black populations.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Nothing in this passage, or Florida’s standards, detracts from the fact that slavery was and is evil. But it is just false to say all slaves were unskilled. There were many slaves that did develop professional skills, and sometimes they were allowed to use those skills to earn money and buy their freedom.

I understand that media stars like Alyssa don’t like DeSantis and want a different candidate to win the Republican nomination. But that does not give them a license to rewrite history.