On Tuesday night’s edition of Hardball, Chris Matthews lambasted Congresswoman Michele Bachmann for statements she made regarding slavery:

In the above video Matthews called Rep. Bachmann a “balloon head” who “knows no American history.” Only, what Bachamnn said is true. What Matthews’ statements demonstrate is that he is in fact a balloon head who knows no American history.

When the Constitution was written, slavery was a highly contentious issue. All but a small minority of the Framers of the Constitution, including those that held slaves at the time, were in favor of abolishing the practice. However, the Framers also understood that an outright abolition of slavery in 1787 would prevent ratification of the Constitution. Additionally, the Framers believed that the states were well on the way to abolishing slavery on their own. As such, the Constitution was written in a way that would allow future generations to eliminate slavery. In fact, the word “slavery” does not appear in the original Constitution, because, as James Madison wrote, it is “wrong to admit in the Constitution the idea that there could be property in men.” Furthermore, Article I, Section ix of the Constitution was written with the intention of banning the importation of more slaves. In 1807, Thomas Jefferson did just that, and signed a bill into law which banned the importing of slaves. For more information on this topic, Dr. William Bennett’s America the Last Best Hope; volume I is a great resource.

Mathews specious line of thinking is evinced in his citing of the tree-fifths compromise of the Constitution, which reads as follows:

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

It was a mathematical formula used for the census. Matthews, and many liberals, claim that slaves were counted as three-fifths because early Americans didn’t view slaves as full human beings. This claim is predicated on painful ignorance. Slave states wanted slaves to be counted as full people in the census. Counting slaves as equals would increase the population count in slave states, thus allotting slave states more representation in the House of Representatives. The the-fifths compromise was instituted to limit the representation of slave states. Moreover, a close examination of the compromise reveals that slaves are referred to as “persons,” laying the groundwork for the abolition of slavery.

The Constitution’s case for abolishing slavery was noted by none other than the world’s most famous abolitionist, Fredrick Douglas, who said “now, take the Constitution according ti its plain reading, and I defy the presentation of a single proslavery clause in it. On the other hand it will be found to contain principles and purposes, entirely hostile to the existence of slavery.”

Today’s education system teaches American history in a vacuum, as though the United States was the only place on earth where slavery existed. The abolition of slavery is a modern concept, when the entire course of human history is considered. From Thomas Sowell’s Dismantling America (p.197):

Slavery was cancerous but does anybody regard cancer in the United States as an evil peculiar to American society? It is a worldwide affliction and so was slavery.

Both the enslavers and the enslaved have included people on every inhabited continent — people of every race, color, and creed.

More Europeans were enslaved and taken to North Africa by Barbary Coast pirates alone than there were African slaves taken to the United States and to the colonies from which it was formed.

Yet throughout our educational system, our media, and in politics, slavery is incessantly presented as if it were something peculiar to black and white Americans.

What was peculiar about the United States was that it was the first country in which slavery was under attack from the moment the country was created.

What was peculiar about Western civilization was that it was the first civilization to destroy slavery, not only within its own countries but in other countries around the world as well.

Chris Matthews’ haughty dismissal of Rep. Bachmann was based on a complete lack of knowledge of American history. Matthews would be well advised to open a book instead of calling Michele Bachmann a “balloon head.”