People trying to change history to suit their own personal agendas has become a troubling trend in recent years. Benny Johnson, who has often been exposed as engaging in bogus historical revisionism, is one of the most notable examples of this.
Johnson most recently asserted that rather than the 12.5% slave population, there were just 2% of slaves in the US. This clearly false statement is disrespectful to the millions of African Americans who were transported here against their will and through decades of cruel treatment. It’s also important to note that slavery, which at its height accounted for 10–20% of GDP, was really extremely profitable for the American economy. So, it is simply incorrect to assert, as Johnson claimed, that slavery in any way contributed to the US economy’s decline.
Slavery being an “afterthought” at the time of American formation and being brought to the country by European colonists are two more of Johnson’s untrue assertions. By considering the evidence, this is easily refuted: Slaveowners made up 25 of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, which resulted in the adoption of a provision demanding the return of escaped slaves to their owners. Around 200 enslaved people worked on the construction of the White House and Capitol Building, and 200k African Americans served in the Northern Union Army during the Civil War.
It is obvious that Benny Johnson cares more about disseminating false information than he does about providing the real tale of American history. We cannot allow him or anybody else to get away with changing the course of history to suit their needs.
