"Slavery May Have Been A Blessing in Disguise?!?!"

As reported by the Root and the Arkansas Times, Republican Rep. Jon Hubbard made several outrageous and absurd statements in his new book.  He said that:

Slavery was good for black people:

“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.” (Pages 183-89)


If you think slavery was bad, you should have seen Africa:

African Americans must “understand that even while in the throes of slavery, their lives as Americans are likely much better than they ever would have enjoyed living in sub-Saharan Africa.”

“Knowing what we know today about life on the African continent, would an existence spent in slavery have been any crueler than a life spent in sub-Saharan Africa?” (Pages 93 and 189)

Rep. Hubbard is not the first Republican to say that slavery was a blessing. Check out this no good, house negro trying to justify slavery:



Our African ancestors experienced unimaginable suffering. Africans were kidnapped, stripped from the Motherland, shackled together, packed into slavery ships like sardines and forced to wallow in their own urine and feces. Millions died during the Middle Passage. The European slave masters threw our ancestors' bodies overboard into the Atlantic Ocean and watched the sharks devoured them. No, Uncle Peterson!  Middle Passage was not "like riding on a crowded airplane when you're not in first class!"

The survivors were subjected to the most cruel form of oppression and exploitation. In the words of Khalid Muhammad, "we were robbed of our names, robbed of our language. We lost our religion, our culture, our God.....we even lost our minds." For centuries, we were dehumanized, reduced to property, beaten with whips, maimed, raped and lynched. Despite all of that suffering, that imbecile has the audacity to say that slavery may be a blessing. That is pure nonsense.

In addition to enslaving Africans, Europeans colonized Africa and plundered her human and natural resources. The current condition of Africa can be directly traced to that legacy of colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism.

What does Rep. Hubbard's election say about the people of Arkansas? What does it say about the Republican Party?