US senator Tom Cotton calls slavery 'necessary evil upon which the union was built'

The Republican previously called on Donald Trump to use military force to deal with Black Lives Matter protests 
Tom Cotton previously called for the army quell widespread rioting during Black Lives Matter protests
Getty Images
Luke O'Reilly27 July 2020

A US senator has faced backlash after describing slavery as the "necessary evil upon which the union was built".

Tom Cotton, the Republican representative for Arkansas, made the comment after proposing legislation to stop the government funding the teaching of the New York Times' 1619 project, a new Black history initiative, in US schools.

The 1619 project reframes US history around the first arrival of slaves to the country in August 1619.

Mr Cotton previously wrote a controversial Op-Ed for the New York Times calling on President Donald Trump to send the military in to deal with Black Lives Matter protests following widespread rioting and looting. The resulting backlash over the article led to the resignation of the paper's editorial page director James Bennett.

Black Lives Matter protests across the world - In pictures

1/21

Mr Cotton told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “The entire premise of the New York Times’ factually, historically flawed 1619 Project … is that America is at root, a systemically racist country to the core and irredeemable.

“I reject that root and branch. America is a great and noble country founded on the proposition that all mankind is created equal. We have always struggled to live up to that promise, but no country has ever done more to achieve it.”

He added: “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. 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 [Abraham] Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction.”

In response Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won the Pulitzer prize for her introduction to the 1619 project, tweeted that if slavery was a "necessary evil" it's "hard to imagine what cannot be justified" as a means to an end.

"If chattel slavery — heritable, generational, permanent, race-based slavery where it was legal to rape, torture, and sell human beings for profit — were a “necessary evil” as @TomCottonAR says, it’s hard to imagine what cannot be justified if it is a means to an end." she said.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT