On August 18, 2019, the Sunday New York Times commemorated the arrival of the first slaves in what became in the Colony of Virginia with its Sunday Magazine totally devoted to slavery in the U.S. (“The 1619 Project”). [1] The Project “aims to reframe the country’s history, understanding 1619 as our true founding, and placing the consequences of slavery and the contribution of black Americans at the very center of the story we tell ourselves about who we are.” That issue of the Magazine contained the following articles:
Title | Pages |
Introduction | 4-7, 10-11 |
The Idea of America | 14-22, 24, 26 |
Chained Migration: How Slavery Made Its Way West | 22 |
August 1619 (Poem) | 28 |
Crispus Attucks (Poem) | 29 |
Capitalism | 30-35, 36-38, 40 |
Good as Gold: In Lincoln’s wartime “greenbacks,” a preview of the 20th-century rise of fiat currency | 35 |
Fabric of Modernity: How Southern cotton became the cornerstone of a new global commodities trade | 36 |
Municipal Bonds: How Slavery Built Wall Street | 40 |
Phillis Wheatley (Poem) | 42 |
Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 (redacted) | 43 |
A Broken Health Care System | 44-45 |
Gabriel’s Rebellion (Aug. 30, 1800) | 46 |
Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves (Jan. 1, 1808) | 47 |
Traffic | 48-49 |
Undemocratic Democracy | 50-55 |
Medical Inequality | 56-57 |
American Attack on Negro Fort (July 27, 1816) | 58 |
Emancipation Proclamation (Jan. 1, 1863) | 59 |
Attack on Abolitionist Convention (July 30, 1866) | 59 |
American Popular Music | 60-67 |
Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in Negro Male (1932) | 68 |
Attack on Isaac Woodard (Feb. 12, 1946) | 69 |
Sugar | 70-76, 77 |
Pecan Pioneer: The Enslaved Man Who Cultivated the South’s Favorite Nut | 76 |
Bombing of 17th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, AL (Sept. 15, 1963)(Poem) | 78 |
Creation of Black Panther Party (Oct. 15, 1966) (Poem) | 79 |
Mass Incarceration (Bryan Stevenson) | 80-81 |
The Wealth Gap | 82-83 |
Hip-Hop | 84 |
Rev. Jesse Jackson Speech (July 17, 1984) | 84-85 |
Louisiana Superdome, Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) | 85 |
Graduates of Howard University Law School (Photos) | 86-93 |
The 1619 Project in Schools (resources for teachers) | Inside back cover |
Statement by Lonnie G. Bunch III (Sec. of Smithsonian) | Back cover |
In addition, that issue of the Sunday Times had a special section on the history of U.S. education about slavery, entitled, “We’ve Got To Tell the Unvarnished Truth” with the following contents:
Title | Page |
Public notice of slave auction (Mar. 25, 1858) | 1 |
“We are committing educational malpractice” | 2 |
“Why Can’t We Teach This?” | 3 |
Introduction | 4 |
No. 1/ Slavery, Power and the Human Cost | 5-9 |
No. 2/ The Limits of Freedom | 10-11 |
No. 3/ A Slave Nation Fights for Freedom | 12-15 |
Many other articles about this Project have appeared in the Times, the Washington Post and other periodicals. Here are some of those articles:
- Here’s What Ta-Nehisi Coates Told Congress About Reparations, N.Y. Times (June 19, 2019)
- A Different Look at Historic Homes of the South, N.Y. Times (June 26, 2019)
- Mzezewa, Enslaved People Lived Here. These Museums Want You to Know, N.Y. Times (June 26, 2019)
- Burch & Barnes, James Monroe Enslaved Hundreds. Their Descendants Still Live Next Door, N.Y. Times (July 7, 2019)
- Swarns, The Nuns Who Bought and Sold Human Beings, N.Y. Times (July 29, 2019)
- Letters to the Editor: An Eye-Opening Project about Slavery, N.Y. Times (Aug. 21, 2019)
- Schneider, In one unusual Virginia neighborhood, roots stretch to some of the earliest Africans in America, Wash. Post (Aug. 22, 2019),
- Stephens, America the Beautiful, N.Y. Times (Aug. 23, 2019)
- Boule, Slavery Was Not a Secondary Part of Our History, N.Y. Times (Aug. 23, 2019)
- Buhari (President of Nigeria), Slavery still exists. We must take action, Wash. Post (Aug.23, 2019)
- Torres-Spelliscy, Everyone is talking about 1619. But that’s not actually when slavery in America started, Wash. Post (Aug. 23, 2019)
- Eghan, The Place Where American Slavery Began, N.Y. Times (Aug. 23, 2019)
- Schneider, Virginia marks the dawn of American slavery in 1619 with solemn speeches and songs, Wash. Post (Aug. 24, 2019)
- Tanick,Slavery made its mark here in Minnesota, too, StarTribune (Aug. 24, 2019), http://www.startribune.com/slavery-made-its-mark-here-in-minnesota-too/558041602/
- Capehart, Dismantling the myth of America and the white men who founded it,
- Helm, Teaching America’s Truth, Wash. Post (Aug. 28, 2019)
- Swarns, The Seminary Flourished on Slave Labor. Now It’s Planning to Pay Reparations, N.Y. Times (Sept. 12, 2019),
- Knowles, Plantations honestly addressing slavery see visitor pushback, Wash. Post (Sept. 13, 2019),
- Lowery, Which black Americans should get reparations? Wash. Post (Sept. 18, 2019)
- Caplan, Book Review: What Reconstruction Laws Can Teach Our Democracy, N.Y. Times (Sept. 18, 2019),
- Bordewich, Book Review: ‘The Second Founding’ and ‘Equality: An American Dilemma, 1866-1896,’ Review: Replanting Democracy, W.S.J. (Sept. 20, 2019),
- Cain, Book Review: How the Reconstruction reshaped the Constitution, StarTribune (Sept. 29, 2019)
- Bunch, 400 years later, America still has so much to learn about its racial history, Wash. Post (Sept. 27, 2019), l
- Cox, When Anti-Immigration Meant Keeping Out Black Pioneers, N.Y. Times (Sept. 20, 2019),
- Harms, An Ancient Practice Transformed by the Arrival of the Europeans, W.S.J. (Sept. 20, 2019),
- Nwaubani, When the Slave Traders Were Africans, W.S.J. (Sept. 20, 2019),
- Sinha, The Long History of American Slavery Reparations, W.S.J. (Sept. 20, 2019)
Negative views of this Project have been expressed in the following:
- McClay, The Weaponization of History, W.S.J. (Aug. 25, 2019).
- Woodson, ‘The 1619 Project Hurts Blacks, W.S.J. (Aug. 28, 2019),
- Brockell, Before 1619, there was 1526: The mystery of the first enslaved Africans in what became the United States, Wash. Post (Sept. 7, 2019),
- Letters to W.S.J. Editor regarding Woodson article (Sept. 9, 2019) [support Woodson (Douglas Sacks, Steven Corneliussen, John Melangton, Karl Miller); criticize Woodson (Ray Rickman]
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[1] The articles in the August 18th Magazine may be found separately in the website for the Magazine (https://www.nytimes.com/section/magazine). This issue of the Magazine has been sold out and has not been reprinted or published as a paperback book.
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