The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is an initiative launched by The New York Times Magazine in August 2019, marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Virginia. This project aims to reframe American history by placing slavery and its enduring consequences at the forefront, suggesting that many aspects of contemporary U.S. society, including economics, politics, and culture, can be traced back to the legacy of slavery and racism. By proposing 1619 as the true founding year of the nation, the project highlights the profound impact of enslaved individuals and their descendants on the country's development.
The project includes a range of essays, poems, and visual materials created by a diverse group of Black writers, historians, and journalists, exploring themes like mass incarceration and systemic inequality. Nikole Hannah-Jones, one of the project's key figures, received the Pulitzer Prize for her contributions. However, the project has faced criticism from some historians who argue it contains factual inaccuracies and distorted interpretations of history. Despite the controversy, the 1619 Project has sparked important discussions about race, identity, and the historical narrative of the United States, and it has led to the creation of educational resources to help teach these complex themes in schools.
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The 1619 Project
The 1619 Project is an initiative that seeks to focus attention on slavery, its consequences, and the contributions of African Americans. The New York Times Magazine began the 1619 Project in August 2019, which was the four hundredth anniversary of the arrival of the first twenty or so enslaved Africans in the British colony of Virginia. The premise of the project is that economic power, industry, politics, cuisine, popular music, and inequality in areas such as education and public health may all be traced to slavery and racism in the earliest days of the nation’s history. By viewing 1619, and not 1776, as the birth year of the nation, according to the publication, the contributions and impact of slavery become more obvious.
Overview
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a staff writer with The New York Times Magazine, conceived of the idea for the project. The essay, describing her African American parents’ and grandparents’ struggles, was included in the special edition that launched the 1619 Project in August 2019. Her essay also described the enslaved Africans sold by English pirates to the Jamestown colonists. The Africans had been kidnapped in what became Angola and taken away in a Portuguese slave ship before they were stolen by the pirates. They and other enslaved Africans who followed over the centuries cleared the land for farming and grew and picked the crops that enriched the nation’s coffers and its leaders, including George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
The publication contained essays on a variety of aspects of modern life in the United States, such as mass incarceration and rush-hour traffic, that the writers linked to slavery and its effects. Also included were images as well as poems and stories by Black writers, including authors, historians, journalists, playwrights, and poets. The combined works sought to answer questions about how racism and social structures that supported enslavement influence modern culture, laws, policies, and systems. The essays also sought to demonstrate how Black Americans, through advocacy, innovation, and resistance, contributed to the democracy and wealth of the nation. The publication also worked with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture in creating a visual history of slavery. The material was published in a special broadsheet supplement and linked to the project online.
After the 1619 Project was published, several historians took issue with some of the content. They wrote to the editor to point out errors of fact and what they described as distortions. Editor Jake Silverstein responded at length to the charges, for example, the statement that a desire to preserve the practice of slavery in part compelled colonists to seek freedom from England, where common law did not support chattel slavery. Silverstein cited historical documents and events to support the statements made in the 1619 Project. For example, the colonial governor of Virginia in 1775 issued the Dunmore Proclamation, which offered freedom to any enslaved person who escaped and joined the British Army. This stunned and angered the colonists, according to historians cited by Silverstein, but during the American Revolution, thousands of enslaved Blacks joined the British forces to gain their freedom.
The publication and the Pulitzer Center developed curricula for teachers to use to supplement their American history lessons.
Bibliography
Da Silva, Chantal. “U.S. Schools Have Openly Taught the 1619 Project for Months.” Newsweek, 7 Sept. 2020, www.newsweek.com/u-s-schools-have-openly-taught-1619-project-months-1530138. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. “Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals Were False When They Were Written. Black Americans Have Fought to Make Them True.” The New York Times Magazine, 14 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
Silverstein, Jake. “We Respond to the Historians Who Critiqued The 1619 Project.” The New York Times Magazine, 4 Jan. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/20/magazine/we-respond-to-the-historians-who-critiqued-the-1619-project.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
Silverstein, Jake. “Why We Published The 1619 Project.” The New York Times Magazine, 20 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/magazine/1619-intro.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
“The 1619 Project Curriculum.” The Pulitzer Center, 2020, pulitzercenter.org/lesson-plan-grouping/1619-project-curriculum. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
“The 1619 Project Resource Page.” National Education Association Ed Justice, 2020, neaedjustice.org/the-1619-project-resource-page/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
Soave, Robby. “Public Schools are Teaching the 1619 Project in Class, Despite Concerns from Historians.” Reason, 28 Jan. 2020, reason.com/2020/01/28/1619-project-new-york-times-public-schools/. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.
Will, Madeline. “The ‘1619 Project’ Curriculum Challenges Teachers to Reframe U.S. History.” Education Week Blog, 19 Aug. 2019, blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching‗now/2019/08/the‗1619‗project‗curriculum‗challenges‗teachers‗reframe‗us‗history.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.