The New York Times Magazine’s new 1619 Project is a special edition that reframes American history around one date: August 1619, when the first slave ship arrived on America’s shores.
“The Fourth of July in 1776 is regarded by most Americans as the country’s birthday,” says an introduction on the Times’ website. “But what if we were to tell you that the country’s true birth date, the moment that its defining contradictions first came into the world, was in late August 1619?”
The project, released online Wednesday and in print on Sunday, outlines its thesis: “No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed.” Through reported essays, longform articles and works of literature, the Project 1619 aims to deepen readers’ understanding of American history.
“In the days and weeks to come, we will publish essays demonstrating that nearly everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery,” the introduction says.
The idea was pitched in January by staff writer Nikole Hannah-Jones, who has a degree in African American studies and has spent her career writing about modern racial inequities and segregation, winning a MacArthur Grant — also known as a “genius grant” — for her work in 2017.
Source: The 1619 Project takes a hard look at the American paradox of freedom and slavery
