When U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann stated that "the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery." She was wrong. Slavery did not end until the Civil War and none of the Founding Fathers were alive at the start of the Civil War. While James Madison and George Washington and a few others left instructions in their wills to free their slaves, they did not work for emancipation.
Rather, the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to write a constitution, create a new form of government and get the Constitution ratified. They made comprises and one of those compromises was on the issue of slavery. While some delegates in the northern colonies wanted slavery abolished, they knew that no constitution which prohibited owning slaves would ever get support from the delegates from the southern colonies.
While Rep. Bachmann made this error in a speech over a year ago, the significance, even now, is that she does not seem to have a basic knowledge of the early history of the United States. This is troubling because there are people who rely on her for information. Although members of Congress need not be experts in U. S. History and/or the Constitution/Bill of Rights, they must be certain their facts are correct.
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