No, Fox’s Katie Pavlich, the US Wasn’t the First to Abolish Slavery

by Juan Cole

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment and Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him at @jricole.

Fox Cable News’ Katie Pavlich asserted Tuesday, “They keep blaming America for slavery, but the truth is that throughout human history slavery has existed. America came along as the first country to end it within 150 years. And we get no credit for that.”

There are so many things wrong with this assertion that you barely know where to start. We probably need another 220 years of American history just to disabuse the US population of all the lies they’ve been spoonfed by Rupert Murdoch and his minions since the 1990s.

Slavery began in British North America in the 1600s. So it took longer than 150 years to abolish it. More like 200 years.

Second, the US was not the first country by any means to abolish slavery. In fact it was very late to do so. Even Tunisia abolished slavery before the United States.

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