Last summer, the New York Times Magazine launched The 1619 Project on the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Jamestown. Its stated goal was “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.” Rather than standing with the American Revolution’s radical promise that we are all created equal and possess the same “unalienable rights,” or Abraham Lincoln’s description of America’s as mankind’s “last best hope,” the revisionist view of The 1619 project argues that America was founded upon slavery and that the effects of white supremacy distort every aspect of American public life today.
Prominent historians, educators, and writers have challenged these claims. Noted scholars such as Gordon Wood, Wilfred M. McClay, Sean Wilentz, James McPherson, and James Oakes have publicly questioned its main contentions. And the 1776 Unites, a group of black scholars and writers led by entrepreneur and civil rights leader Bob Woodson, has produced essays, and eventually a curriculum, that will “challenge those who assert America is forever defined by its past failures, such as slavery.”
This isn’t merely an academic debate: If slavery is viewed as supplying the fundamental meaning to America instead of a blatant contradiction with the principles on which our nation was founded, how can her citizens embrace the patriotism and civic pride necessary to keep the flame of liberty ablaze? How can “E Pluribus Unum” prevail when students are told that their country is built on nothing but injustice and subjugation?
Ultimately, the legitimate goals of The 1619 Project cannot be sustained if the noble principles of 1776 are repudiated.
This portal aims to give a full picture of American principles and history, complete with an array of resources. Without glossing over the deep stain of slavery in our nation's past, we offer a compelling view that sees America's faults in light of its promises — a country, in Lincoln's words, founded upon "the principle of 'Liberty to all' — the principle that clears the path for all — gives hope to all."