McGraw-Hill history textbook refers to African slaves as ‘workers’
A Texas mother noticed something disturbing last week in her son's "World Geography" textbook. The book referred to African slaves brought to the United States as "workers."
The reference was under the "Patterns of Immigration" chapter. On Wednesday Roni Dean-Burren posted a photo of the section of the text on Facebook. The next day she posted a video explaining what she'd found and showing the reference to slaves as "workers". By Friday McGraw-Hill said the language in the book would be changed in subsequent editions.
The text referred to the slave trade as a pattern of immigration and mentioned European indentured servants, but did not mention African slaves, Dean-Burren said in her video.
There is no mention of Africans as working as slaves or being slaves. It just says we were 'workers'
On Friday McGraw Hill said they would change the language. From the McGraw-Hill Facebook post:
However, we conducted a close review of the content and agree that our language in that caption did not adequately convey that Africans were both forced into migration and to labor against their will as slaves.
Mc-Graw Hill said the language would change immediately on all digital material.
