NYU Professor Challenges Governor Northam's "Indentured Servants"

Here is an excellent twitter thread from Rebecca Anne Goetz, Associate Professor of History at New York University, about Governor Northam's recent portrayal of the first Africans to land on our shores in 1619 as "indentured servants."

Professor Goetz argues that Northam was "engaging a narrative of white innocence, of Virginian innocence, a narrative that slavery wasn't that bad."

Governor Northam spoke to Face the Nation this weekend about the crisis that his yearbook photo caused. He said that he wanted to stay in office and work on civil rights and equity. In the clip below, he mentions the 400th anniversary  of the first "indentured servants" to arrive on our shore.

Professor Goetz reviews the historiography surorounding the first slaves to land on our shores.