Former Alabama state Sen. Hank Sanders of Selma has written an open letter to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis about Florida public schools teaching that some African Americans who were slaves learned skills that benefited them later in life, calling the concept “sad and preposterous.”

The Florida Board of Education adopted new standards for social studies lessons that include: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).”

The standards say, “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Sanders, who is Black, wrote that slaveholders, their families and their business associates were the only ones who benefited from slavery.

“Governor DeSantis, slavery did not provide benefits to enslaved Black people but rather robbed them of every benefit,” Sanders wrote. He called on DeSantis to denounce the “fraudulent interpretation of our history.”

“After all, history is forged so we can learn from it to build a better future,” Sanders wrote. “And changed history is false history. And false history results in false learning that allows us to repeat terrible wrongs like the slavery you are intentionally misinterpreting.”

DeSantis is not a member of the Florida Board of Education but has defended the standards and said the criticisms have mischaracterized the meaning of the standard.

“They developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery,” DeSantis said in In an interview on NBC. “It was them showing resourcefulness and using those skills.”

Vice President Kamala Harris has called the standards “revisionist history” and “lies.” DeSantis said the standards have become controversial only because he is running for president.

Sanders, who represented a Black Belt district in the Senate for nine terms through 2018, sees the issue differently.

“As one of millions of descendants of enslaved Black people, I know the ravages of slavery and its long terrible legacy,” Sanders wrote. “African people had great skills when they were violently kidnapped and forcibly snatched from their families, their villages, their tribes, their continent, their culture. Prior to being kidnapped, they practiced medicine, commerce, agriculture, astronomy, engineering, craftsmanship and so many other professions and skills to build and manage their society. Practice of skills they possessed before being kidnapped were then denied to them under slavery. Enslaved African people lost, not gained skills.”