400 years after 1619, debate continues over how slavery shaped America

The year 1619 marks the forced arrival of the first Africans in colonial Virginia. That date has become a flashpoint in how Americans understand their history, a controversy that erupted publicly in August 2019 when The New York Times Magazine published the 1619 Project. The special issue, created by journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, argued that slavery is central to the American story, predating nearly every other institution in the country.

Hannah-Jones first learned the date 1619 as a high school student in Waterloo, Iowa, from Lerone Bennett Jr.’s book Before the Mayflower. After receiving a MacArthur grant for her work on racial segregation, she proposed the project to convince the public that slavery had been sidelined in mainstream education. She gathered nearly two dozen scholars at the Times office in Manhattan to identify modern aspects of American society rooted in slavery. The resulting issue included ten nonfiction essays covering topics from health care to traffic patterns, alongside short stories and poems.

The publication sparked immediate reaction. Editor Jake Silverstein wrote that out of slavery grew nearly everything that made America exceptional. Hannah-Jones went further, declaring that the founding ideals of liberty and equality were false when written. She also claimed that one of the primary reasons colonists declared independence was to protect slavery. This assertion challenged the view that the founders primarily sought to limit the power of slaveholders.

Historian Sean Wilentz criticized the project after reading Hannah-Jones’s claim. Wilentz, who had recently published No Property in Man on the Constitutional Convention, argued that slaveholders were defeated in their attempts to codify slavery in national law. He described the project’s approach as easy cynicism that ignored the complex dynamics of antislavery movements. Wilentz joined other historians in a public letter seeking corrections, though the Times initially perceived the letter as an attack. The debate continued through the American Historical Association’s annual meeting and in popular publications.

The Times eventually revised Hannah-Jones’s introductory essay, changing the language to say that protecting slavery was one of the primary reasons some of the colonists decided to declare independence. Hannah-Jones won a Pulitzer Prize for the essay in the commentary category. The controversy faded during the pandemic but resurfaced after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, which sparked nationwide protests against racism and police violence.

The Pulitzer Center announced that a school curriculum based on the project was being used in thousands of classrooms. This development drew criticism from conservatives who argued the curriculum emphasized white supremacy over freedom. The ongoing debate reflects a wider effort to define how slavery influences modern American institutions.

A new book, Making Sense of Slavery: America’s Long Reckoning, from the Founding Era to Today, offers a detailed account of these events. The book is available through Prospector, the combined catalog of 23 Colorado libraries, as well as through Libby for e-books and audiobooks. Colorado independent bookstores can be found via the NewPages Guide, and the book is searchable on Bookshop.org.