Owning slaves was a business decision’: New Hampshire Republican lawmaker Werner Horn comes under fire for saying slavery was not based on race but on economics
- Republican state Rep. Werner Horn suggested in a now-deleted Facebook post that owning slaves ‘wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics’
- Horn added: ‘It shouldn’t be surprising since owning slaves wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics. It’s a business decision’
- ‘Slavery later on in the American South was not about the color of the skin of the slaves but their value as workers on the plantations,’ Horn told the Union Leader
A New Hampshire lawmaker has been slammed after he claimed American slavery was based on economics and not racism.
Republican state Rep. Werner Horn suggested in a now-deleted Facebook post that owning slaves ‘wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics’ and claiming that it was ‘a business decision.’
The outrageous assertion came when former state House member Dan Hynes posed the question: ‘If Trump is the most racist president in American history, what does that say about all of the other presidents who owned slaves?’
Republican state Rep. Werner Horn suggested in a now-deleted Facebook post that owning slaves ‘wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics’ and claiming that it was ‘a business decision’
Horn responded, ‘Wait, owning slaves doesn’t make you racist…’
‘I guess not,’ Hynes replied Tuesday. ‘Which is surprising since everything else makes someone a racist.’
Horn added: ‘It shouldn’t be surprising since owning slaves wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics. It’s a business decision.’
Hynes reverse-ferreted Thursday via Facebook, saying that ‘slavery in the U.S. was in fact racist.’
Despite this, Horn, a three-term lawmaker, doubled down on his views in interviews with the Huffington Post and the New Hampshire Union Leader.
He claimed people have been enslaving others throughout history, calling the American institution of slavery an ‘economic reality.’
‘Slavery later on in the American South was not about the color of the skin of the slaves but their value as workers on the plantations,’ Horn told the Union Leader.
The outrageous assertion came when former state House member Dan Hynes posed the question: ‘If Trump is the most racist president in American history, what does that say about all of the other presidents who owned slaves?
‘The U.S. had abolitionists since the start, people who felt slavery wasn’t moral but they weren’t enslaving black people because they were black.
‘They were bringing in these folks because they were available.’
Millions of men, women and children were kidnapped and shipped to the U.S. where slave owners forced them into brutal conditions where they sold like commodities.
The effects of slavery are still felt strongly today through discrimination against black people, disproportionate incarceration rates and overdiscipline in schools.