Michele Bachmann Slavery Gaffes Continue

Presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann is again weathering criticism over a statement related to slavery, this time for signing a document that suggested African American families were more stable when slavery was legal.

Seeking to strengthen her position as an established social conservative, Bachmann endorsed a pledge called "the Marriage Vow," composed by a conservative Christian organization, that denounced homosexuality and pornography. The pledge also lamented the deterioration of African American families by harkening back to pre-Civil War America.

"Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President," the document read.

Family Leader, the group that circulated the document, removed the offending passage. A Bachmann spokeswoman later told Politico that the pledge did not reference slavery and advanced Bachmann's position that "slavery was horrible and economic enslavement is also horrible" in a swipe at President Obama's policies.