Rep. Bachmann Thinks Founding Fathers Ended Slavery

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), the de facto  leader of the "Tea Party" Movement, has

once again stunned people with one of her pearls of wisdom.

According to Bachmann, who will likely give a fact-less Tea Party rebuttal to tonight’s State of the Union, the United States was founded on a platform of racial and ethnic tolerance, and the founding fathers were the ones responsible for ending slavery.

To think, all these years our history books have been teaching it all wrong.

Raw Story reports: Speaking at an event sponsored by Iowans For Tax Relief, Bachmann hailed the “different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions” of the early European settlers in America, adding that the “color of their skin” or “language” or “economic status” didn’t preclude them from seeking happiness.

She continued to talk about our founding fathers who worked to end slavery once and for all. “But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States,” Bachmann added, claiming “men like John Quincy Adams… would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country.”

We don’t know how they taught history when Bachmann was in school but the folks at HyperVocal learned a bit of a different story.

Slavery was very popular in the United States long after the country’s founding in 1776, largely because of a compromise between the founding fathers that established African-Americans as three-fifths of a person. Several of them, including Thomas Jefferson, even owned slaves.

Despite Bachmann’s assessment that our forefathers were the ones to end slavery, it was not ended until 1865 (89 years after our country was founded) when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. It was that amendment that expressly forbade slavery.

Although he cannot be credited with the eradication of slavery — that was more Abraham Lincoln’s legacy — John Quincy Adams was known to be a strong opponent of slavery. Perhaps, this is where Rep. Bachmann became confused. Adams was a founding father and a National Republican, and we all know how much politicians love giving credit to their own party.

POSTED JANUARY 25TH 1:30PM

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