The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

Once again, I've wandered away from our genre of thrillers and murder mysteries.

The 1619 Project, edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, is a collection of essays, poems, and short fictional accounts, all of which are intended to reframe the institution of slavery in the U.S. I kept seeing advertisements for the book in the Sunday New York Times Book Review, and being a student of U.S. History, I thought it was important to have a look at what has become a controversial book and nationwide subject of debate.

 

The year 1619, the year before the arrival of the Mayflower, was the year that the first ship of enslaved Africans landed in the U.S., the ship was the White Lion and it landed in Jamestown, Virginia. Hannah-Jones contends that the history of enslavement was nearly left out of the early histories of what became the U.S. colonies. Also, she argued that when enslavement was mentioned, it was largely misrepresented. Her research into the subject is most impressive. She contended that the maintenance of slavery was actually an important factor in the onset of the Revolutionary War. It was the wealthier southern slave states that largely funded the war. She described that the promise of freedom which was written into the Declaration of Independence was essentially undermined in the U.S. Constitution.

 

George Washington, a very wealthy owner of enslaved persons, ran his large estate in Mount Vernon. Ms. Hannah-Jones chose not to use the word “plantation” to describe such estates, rather referring to them as enslaved forced labor operations. Washington was one topic, and Abe Lincoln was another. She carefully reported the history of harsh laws that were passed in an attempt to keep the enslaved persons in control. While Abe Lincoln came to be known as the Great Emancipator, she described the evolution of his thinking, and it was not long before the Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln was still advocating for the deportment of all free blacks to Africa. She thought the changes in his thinking about the topic was in response to those troubled political times.

 

Continuing on after the Civil War, after Lincoln's assassination was President Andrew Johnson who worked hard to pardon all of the rebel leaders and limit the rights of the freed slaves. Then came the short Reconstruction Era which led to the brutal Jim Crow Era. The 1965 Civil Rights Act signed by President Lyndon Johnsonwas a hallmark in the protection of the Black voters, but that was then undone by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013 under John Roberts. Each step along the way was well researched and reported in the book, leaving the U.S. still suppressing the Black vote.

 

It's my opinion that this is an important book which does put the institution of slavery in a different light, and it explains how the Black population of the U.S. continues to be held down by institutional racism. I encourage you to read it.