# Virginia gov. yearbook page has Klan and blackface pictures **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 1, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809 "2019-02-01T22:05:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 24
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/461 "2019-02-11T15:37:56Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > He’s technically correct, apparently, but that was a pretty dumb thing to say. > > [Jamestown Colony - Facts, Founding, Pocahontas | HISTORY](https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/jamestown) > > Eta: ninja’d! > > He did acknowledge that in the interview: Depends on [one’s definition of 'technically](https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/africans-arrive-virginia-1619)’ AFAICT: > [@](#): > > The social status of the first Africans in Jamestown was confusing, and perhaps deliberately ambiguous. Records from 1623 and 1624 list the black inhabitants of the colony as servants, not slaves. In these same records, however, white indentured servants are listed along with the year in which they were to attain freedom; no such year accompanies the names of black servants. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2019, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/462 "2019-02-11T20:07:00Z")
> [@DSYoungEsq](#): > > :eek: Just to make things really easy on him, the Governor yesterday referred on a news talk program to the first slaves brought to Virginia as “indentured servants”. The first slaves brought to Virginia \*were \*indentured servants. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/463 "2019-02-12T13:31:19Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The first slaves brought to Virginia \*were \*indentured servants. So are you saying the first slaves brought to Virginia weren’t _really_ slaves, but rather indentured servants who could expect to be freed at the end of their term? Or are you saying they were _called_ indentured servants, but were in fact slaves? I’m genuinely unclear on your meaning. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/464 "2019-02-12T17:49:59Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > So are you saying the first slaves brought to Virginia weren’t _really_ slaves, but rather indentured servants who could expect to be freed at the end of their term? > > Or are you saying they were _called_ indentured servants, but were in fact slaves? > > I’m genuinely unclear on your meaning. At least some of the blacks originally brought to Virginia as “indentured servants” eventually did earn their freedom; see for example [Anthony Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Johnson_(colonist)). Others seem to have been in a murkier status; Johnson himself owned the contract for John Casor and was not obligated to release him at the end of term. There’s actually a fair amount of debate among historians about the transition from indentured servitude to slavery for Africans in Virginia Colony, and it’s not altogether clear what the correct answer is. ---
**Author:** ![Falchion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/465 "2019-02-12T18:06:09Z")
> [@slash2k](#): > > At least some of the blacks originally brought to Virginia as “indentured servants” eventually did earn their freedom; see for example [Anthony Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Johnson_(colonist)). Others seem to have been in a murkier status; Johnson himself owned the contract for John Casor and was not obligated to release him at the end of term. There’s actually a fair amount of debate among historians about the transition from indentured servitude to slavery for Africans in Virginia Colony, and it’s not altogether clear what the correct answer is. I understand that we say that its murky. But I thought it was fairly well established that the first blacks in Virginia (the “20 and odd Negroes”) were capture from a Portuguese slave ship and brought to Virginia. How could there be a term of indenture under those circumstances? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/466 "2019-02-12T18:25:48Z")
> [@Falchion](#): > > I understand that we say that its murky. But I thought it was fairly well established that the first blacks in Virginia (the “20 and odd Negroes”) were capture from a Portuguese slave ship and brought to Virginia. How could there be a term of indenture under those circumstances? Because of the laws on the books at the time. Slavery didn’t get enshrined into law in Virginia until around 1640. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/467 "2019-02-12T18:34:29Z")
> [@Falchion](#): > > I understand that we say that its murky. But I thought it was fairly well established that the first blacks in Virginia (the “20 and odd Negroes”) were capture from a Portuguese slave ship and brought to Virginia. How could there be a term of indenture under those circumstances? The legal institution of slavery, the framework of laws setting the rules for holding people in servitude for life, didn’t exist yet in Virginia. However, there was an existing system for buying and selling indenture contracts, so it is at least plausible to see a situation where the rules of indenture were applied to these strangers who arrived by other means. For example, “I have to pay $X per year for a contract for this English or Scottish immigrant; I have to pay $X \* Y for this African person, so we’ll consider that to be Y years’ term of service for him to work off what I paid for his labor.” ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/468 "2019-02-12T19:11:30Z")
> [@Falchion](#): > > I understand that we say that its murky. But I thought it was fairly well established that the first blacks in Virginia (the “20 and odd Negroes”) were capture from a Portuguese slave ship and brought to Virginia. How could there be a term of indenture under those circumstances? The Africans had been baptized as Christians when they were under Portuguese control, and in those days, the English couldn’t bring themselves to enslave baptized Christians. Allegedly. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/469 "2019-02-21T20:53:31Z")
The honorable governor of Virginia has demonstrated the perfect response to these sort of things. Wait a week or two and the media will have moved on. ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2019, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/470 "2019-02-21T21:14:35Z")
Perhaps that is working out for him. It seems most of the prior aftermath was rocky and handled clumsily by him. It got to the point half the time I’d see a headline about him, I’d have to make sure it wasn’t coming from The Onion. ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2019, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/471 "2019-02-28T00:38:48Z")
[…](https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/virginia-first-lady-under-fire-for-handing-cotton-to-african-american-students-on-mansion-tour/2019/02/27/e03dedbe-3ac4-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d978566acb9) > [@](#): > > A Virginia state employee has complained that her eighth-grade daughter was upset during a tour of the historic governor’s residence when first lady Pam Northam handed raw cotton to her and another African American child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick the crop. > > “The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions,” Leah Dozier Walker, who oversees the Office of Equity and Community Engagement at the state Education Department, wrote Feb. 25 to lawmakers and the office of Gov. Ralph Northam (D). > > “But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness,” she wrote. Isn’t he going to get sick of his every move being under a microscope at some point? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2019, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/472 "2019-03-01T03:17:38Z")
Isn’t that a standard part of the tour for all visitors, regardless of race? Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/473 "2019-05-22T20:36:44Z")
Investigation says they can’t determine if he is in the picture in blackface > **[School Knew About Racist Photo In Va. Governor's Yearbook Years Before...](https://www.npr.org/2019/05/22/725794091/school-knew-about-racist-photo-in-va-governors-yearbook-years-before-scandal-bro)** > > The investigation into who appears in the racist photo on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's yearbook page was inconclusive, but school officials did know of the photo years earlier and did not go public. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809.md?page=23)