Introducing The 1620 Project
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CounterCurrent: Week of 1/5
Introducing The 1620 Project
CounterCurrent is the National Association of Scholars’ weekly newsletter, bringing you the biggest issues in academia and our responses to them.
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Category: American History; Reading Time: ~3 minutes
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** Featured Article - America Wasn't Founded on White Supremacy by Lucas Morel ([link removed][UNIQID])
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In August, The New York Times Magazine launched The 1619 Project ([link removed][UNIQID]) , a campaign named after the year in which America’s first African slaves were brought to the shores of Virginia. This project does not attempt to retell the history of American slavery, but to recast all of American history as being centered on and made possible by the Atlantic slave trade. In the Times’s own words: “No aspect of the country that would be formed here has been untouched by the years of slavery that followed...It [The 1619 Project] aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.” What has followed is a series of essays, poems, podcasts, speeches, and educational initiatives arguing this fundamental claim.
The most influential contribution to The 1619 Project is Nikole Hannah-Jones’s 7,000-word essay, “Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals were False When They Were Written. Black Americans have Fought to Make Them True. ([link removed][UNIQID]) ” In this essay, Hannah-Jones, the architect of the project itself, contends that the founding fathers did not actually believe that “All men are created equal,” because they wrote these words as slave owners. This argument is indicative of the greater thesis of The 1619 Project. Not only were the views of the founding fathers invalid because their racial sins, but also our entire nation was built on the false premises of 1776 and must be viewed through the true premises of 1619: slavery, oppression, and white supremacy.
In response to this incredibly one-sided, oversimplified view of American history, the NAS has launched our own initiative, The 1620 Project ([link removed][UNIQID]) . Through this campaign, we aim to counter the claims of The 1619 Project and provide a broader picture of American history, one that is informed by a thorough and unbiased assessment of historical data. This week’s featured article ([link removed][UNIQID]) , written by Professor Lucas Morel of Washington and Lee University, is a direct refutation of Hannah-Jones’ essay and shows that the founding fathers did, in fact, care deeply about equality and liberty, but feared the societal consequences of abolishing slavery immediately. After all, we all know how well it went when this actually happened in the 1860s; imagine the state of the nation (or lack thereof) had this occurred one hundred years earlier without any of the necessary preparation.
Conservatives are not alone in their critique. Leading historians and editors of the World Socialist Web Site such as Gordon Wood and James McPherson recently lambasted the project ([link removed][UNIQID]) , calling it “so wrong in so many ways” and an “unbalanced, one-sided account.” When scholars from both ends of the political spectrum share in their sharp criticism, the Times’s flagrant and ideologically-driven historical violations become all the more transparent.
The 1619 Project is not a stand-alone campaign presenting a historical perspective with which we disagree. It is put forth by one of the nation’s foremost publications as the objective truth about American history. What’s more, the “1619 Project view” of history is already being implemented into public school curricula on a national scale. Partnering with the Pulitzer Center, The New York Times provides ready-made lesson plans ([link removed][UNIQID]) for teachers of all grades. According to the organization,
“Teachers across all 50 states have accessed the Pulitzer Center educational resources since the project’s launch...Educators from hundreds of schools and administrators from six school districts have also reached out to the Center for class sets of the magazine. Teachers are using the magazine in their classes to teach subjects ranging from English to History and Social Studies...”
Countless students will be taught this view of history in the coming years, learning to hate their own country and distrust its foundational ideals. It is our hope that The 1620 Project ([link removed][UNIQID]) will stem this tidal wave of misinformation and help restore integrity and honesty to American historical education.
Until next week.
John David
Communications Associate
National Association of Scholars
Read More ([link removed][UNIQID])
For more on The 1620 Project:
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October 08, 2019
** The Economics and Politics of the NYT's 1619 Project ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Interview by Peter Wood
Robert Cherry and Phil Magness join Peter W. Wood to discuss the 1619 Project, what it means for the 1776 project, and what it gets so wrong about the Nation's founding.
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October 08, 2019
** How the Times’ 1619 Project Misses the Point ([link removed][UNIQID])
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David Randall
As Englishmen had become Americans, liberty and equality shifted from customs to rights, and slavery became a very peculiar institution indeed, a repellent anomaly in a world of freedom.
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October 19, 2019
** America’s Exceptional Guilt ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Jason Ross ([link removed][UNIQID])
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A Liberty University professor explains the emergence of the "neo-Garrisonian" view of the Constitution, recently promulgated in The New York Times' 1619 Project, arguing that it is both in error and dangerous for American culture.
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October 18, 2019
** Reclaiming 1619 ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Kevin R. C. Gutzman
A prominent historian critiques The New York Times' over-simplified portrayal of American slavery, instead offering a more holistic account of the events surrounding our country's founding.
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September 18, 2019
** America is Hopelessly Racist ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Peter Wood
What does it mean to re-write America's foundational myth?
** About the NAS
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