Julia Hartley-Brewer clashed with US author Ann Coulter, who said the United States of America was built by British settlers, “but not immigrants,” during a heated debate on her TalkTV programme last night. Julia began: “America is a nation built on immigration.” However, Ann interjected immediately, saying: “No, it’s not.”
As Julia asked her guest to explain, Ann scoffed and said: “It was founded by mostly British settlers in the 1600s…” Julia cut in: “They were immigrants!”
“No, there was no America to immigrate to – they created America,” Ann insisted. We’re not living in the Navajo Nation; we are living in the United States of America, created by British settlers. Thank you very much, by the way. They were fantastic.
“The Dutch came, a few Germans, and basically until 1970, that was it. And 10 to 20 per cent black. They were not immigrants, they were settlers.” Julia struggled to get a word in as Ann refused to let her speak on the live programme.
The argument sparked uproar on social media, with a myriad of viewers commenting on Ann’s claims.
Sara penned: “Why don’t these folks understand? The word immigrate means to move to a foreign country. A settler is someone who moves either to a country OR to an area that isn’t a country yet. The USA and UK had settlers first, not immigrants.”
Amanda added: “Ask the Native Americans how they feel about it.” A third person wrote: “All new countries are started with immigrants, just like we were, idiots.”
George noted: “There’s a huge difference between building a country from nothing and moving to one that is already built.”
Another wrote: “If the English people who sailed to North America in the 1600s had tried to join the existing “first nations” of indigenous tribes who already lived there, they would have been immigrants. But they didn’t. They founded a new nation.”
However, Marwood wrote: “Ann is right, and it’s a very important distinction.” Meanwhile, another user agreed, stating, “Ann’s correct.”
Italian explorer Christopher Columbus is credited with “discovering” the Americas in 1492. However, Vicking navigators had already arrived on the New World’s shores hundreds of years prior.
When white settlers arrived in the Americas, historians estimate that more than 10 million Native Americans lived there.
TalkTV airs daily on YouTube, Freeview and Sky.