Tea partier: "Had there not been slavery in the South, the economy would've fallen"

Tea Party activists in Tennessee are urging lawmakers to change that state's school curriculum to require schools to teach differently on slavery.

"My biggest concern is that important information is being omitted, which creates a negative light on our Founding Fathers," said Tea Party activist Brian Rieck.

Many members of the group are asking Tennessee lawmakers to tweak textbooks so that doesn't happen. Notably, they're hoping to make changes in how slavery and encroachment on Native Americans are portrayed to students. "Slavery is of course portrayed in the textbooks nowadays I'm sure as a totally negative thing. Had there not been slavery in the South, the economy would've fallen," Rieck said.

Emphasis mine.

These people want us to gloss over the very real human toll of slavery. They want us to believe that if the slave in the picture above hadn't suffered through that, the economy of this country would have faltered.

It's bad enough that history courses gloss over discrimination against Catholics, Jews, immigrants, and other groups. Even worse, students hear little mention of the brutality faced by Native Americans as they were forcibly removed from their lands.

Now this.

You know what is said about how those who don't learn from history. These people want to condemn our kids to repeat history.