Slaves weren’t immigrants. They were property.

Dr. Tera W. Hunter, professor in the history department and department of African-American studies at Princeton University, explains why the misrepresentation of American history, as in Ben Carson’s recent talk, is harmful.  “Retrofitting a generic definition of the term “immigrant” to slavery strips both of their historical meaning. . . . Our nation was built upon multiple patterns of migration that were propelled by variant motivations, including flight from religious persecution and the desire to exploit others for economic greed.”