{UAH} Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton Says Slavery Was A ‘Necessary Evil,’ Cites Founding Fathers

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a newspaper interview that slavery in the early years of the United States was "the necessary evil upon which the union was built," as he sought to promote a bill he has introduced that would defund schools that teach The New York Times' controversial 1619 Project, about American slavery history.

In the interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Cotton said that slavery is a critical piece of American history, telling the newspaper, "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 Lincoln said, to put slavery on the course to its ultimate extinction."

A spokesman for his office told Talking Points Memo that Cotton was citing the Founding Fathers and doesn't personally believe that slavery was a "necessary evil."

Cotton is strongly opposed to curriculum based on the 1619 Project, which largely focuses on American history based around slavery, and his bill, called the Saving American History Act of 2020, could cut federal funding from school districts that adopt the curriculum.

The 1619 Project was launched by The New York Times in 2019—the 400th anniversary of African slaves' arrival in what is now the United States—to expand on accounts of slavery from the country's early years, which are largely left out from the historical narrative many Americans are taught.

Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project's creator, won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary, while The New York Times and the Pulitzer Center have since designed a curriculum around the project, which is now being adopted in some schools.

Cotton says the curriculum is "left-wing propaganda," but his bill has no cosponsors and seems unlikely to pass, even though the project has faced significant backlash from the political right, including President Donald Trump.

"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," Cotton said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "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."

The 1619 Project has also faced some strong critiques from historians. A group of five prominent historians sent a letter to The New York Times in 2019, calling the project "a praiseworthy and urgent public service," but criticizing some of its historical accuracies, such as the claim that America's Founding Fathers declared independence from Britain to "ensure slavery would continue."

Cotton often faults the Times for what he feels is incorrect or biased reporting, but the most noteworthy episode between the Times and Cotton came from a piece he wrote that was published in the paper. In early June, Cotton had an op-ed piece published called "Send In The Troops," arguing that President Donald Trump should have been using the military to control protests that turned to rioting in many cities following the death of George Floyd. The Times later acknowledged that the piece failed to meet its editorial standards and led to the resignation of opinion editor James Bennet.

Cotton is running for reelection this year without any Democratic competition. The candidate that was going to be the Democratic nominee dropped out after a filing deadline, meaning the party was unable to field a replacement candidate. Cotton won the seat in 2014 by trouncing two-term Democratic incumbent Mark Pryor by a margin of 57%-39%.

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