Historians Trash DeSantis' Understanding of U.S. History—'Beyond Ignorance'

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Ron DeSantis has been accused of mixing "fact and fiction" by leading historians over his comments about early U.S. history.

Speaking on Tuesday the Florida Governor claimed it was the "American revolution that caused people to question slavery."

He added: "Nobody had questioned it before we decided as Americans that we are endowered by our creator with inalienable rights and that we are all created equal. Then that birthed abolition movements."


However, speaking to Newsweek four prominent American historians rejected his argument, with one branding it "completely incorrect."

Reacting to DeSantis's comments Professor Karin Wulf, who specializes in eighteenth-century British America at Brown University, said: "On at least three levels this is wrong.

"Most egregiously, the idea that 'no one' questioned slavery erases enslaved people themselves who were active in resisting slavery both as individuals and collectively and in refusing the logic and legality of their enslavement."

Seth Rockman, an associate professor at Brown who has written extensively about the economics of slavery, accused DeSantis of ignoring Black Americans as part of a strategy linked with white nationalism.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/h...A12bY8t?cvid=52d547626ed8434da4fa52521fc8fa7d

 

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1572314687542288386

 

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"The slaves who staged massive revolts in New York, South Carolina, and other mainland colonies throughout the colonial era, were they not questioning slavery?"

Professor Sarah Pearsall, who has worked extensively on the "colonial and revolutionary periods" of U.S. history, also disagreed.

She said: "The claim by DeSantis is completely incorrect. Plenty of people had questioned slavery before the American Revolution. Of course enslaved people had resisted the system since its inception, but there were also tracts by colonists, such as Samuel Sewell's The Selling of Joseph, published in Boston in 1700, which argued that the institution was unacceptable.

"This statement is yet another deliberate DeSantis move to 'trigger' or 'own the libs,' but let's think about the implications of DeSantis's statement here: When DeSantis says 'no one' he pretends that enslaved African and African-descended people aren't worth taking seriously as people whose opinions about slavery might matter, then or now.