No. 3. A slave nation fights for freedom, 1809-1865
Contents:
No. 2. The limits of freedom, 1776-1808 -- Nikita Stewart -- Editor's note and introduction / Nikole Hannah-Jones -- The idea of America / Tiya Miles -- Chained migration: how slavery made its way west / Clint Smith -- Middle Passage / Yusef Komunyakaa -- Crispus Attucks / Matthew Desmond -- Capitalism / Mehrsa Baradaran -- Mortgaging the future: the North-South rift led to a piecemeal system of bank regulation - with dangerous consequences / Mehrsa Baradaran -- Good as gold: in Lincoln's wartime "greenbacks," a preview of the 20th century rise of fiat currency / Mehrsan Baradaran -- Fabric of modernity: how Southern cotton became the cornerstone of a new global commodities trade / Tiya Miles -- Municipal bonds: how slavery built Wall Street / Eve L. Ewing -- Phillis Wheatley / Reginald Dwayne Betts -- Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 / Jeneen Interlandi -- A broken health care system / Barry Jenkins -- Gabriel's Rebellion / Jesmyn Ward -- Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves / Kevin M. Kruse -- Traffic / Jamelle Bouie -- Undemocratic democracy / Linda Villarosa -- Medical inequality / Tyehimba Jess -- Black Seminoles / Darryl Pinckney -- Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 / ZZ Packer -- New Orleans massacre of 1866 / Wesley Morris -- American popular music / Yaa Gyasi -- Tuskegee syphilis experiment / Jacqueline Woodson -- Sgt. Isaac Woodard / Khalil Gibran Muhammad -- Sugar / Tiya Miles -- Pecan pioneer: the enslaved man who cultivated the South's favorite nut / Rita Dove and Camille T. Dungy -- 16th Street Baptist Church bombing / Joshua Bennett -- Black Panther Party / Bryan Stevenson-- Mass incarceration / Trymaine Lee -- The wealth gap / Lynn Nottage -- The birth of hip-hop / Kiese Laymon -- Rev. Jesse Jackson's "rainbow coalition" speech / Clint Smith -- Superdome after Hurricane Katrina / Djeneba Aduayom -- Hope : a photo essay / Anne C. Bailey -- Shadow of the past / Nikita Stewart -- Why can't we teach this / No. 1. Slavery, power and the human cost, 1455-1775 -- No. 2. The limits of freedom, 1776-1808 --
Summary:
The goal of The 1619 Project is to reframe American history by making explicit how slavery is the foundation on which the United States of America is built, and by considering what it would mean to regard 1619 as the nation's birth year. By placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story citizens tell of themselves and about who they are as a country, the hope is to paint a fuller picture of the institution that shaped the nation. The project consists of essays on different aspects of contemporary American life, from mass incarceration to rush-hour traffic, that have their roots in slavery and its aftermath. Alongside the essays are 17 original literary works that bring to life key moments in African-American history over the past 400 years, and a special section from the New York Times newspaper on the history of slavery made in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution When I first weighed in upon the New York Times 1619 Project, I was struck by its conflicted messaging. Comprising an entire magazine feature and a sizable advertising budget, the newspaper s initiative conveyed a serious attempt to engage the public in an intellectual exchange about the history of slavery in the United States and its lingering harms to our social fabric. It also seemed to avoid the superficiality of many public history initiatives, which all too often reduce over 400 complex years of slavery s history and legacy to sweeping generalizations. Instead, the Times promised detailed thematic explorations of topics ranging from the first slave ship s arrival in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619 to the politics of race in the present day. At the same time, however, certain 1619 Project essayists infused this worthy line of inquiry with a heavy stream of ideological advocacy. Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones announced this political intention openly, pairing progressive activism with the initiative s stated educational purposes. In assembling these essays, I make no claim of resolving what continues to be a vibrant and ongoing discussion. Neither should my work be viewed as the final arbiter of historical accuracy, though I do evaluate a number of factual and interpretive claims made by the project s authors. Rather, the aim is to provide an accessible resource for readers wishing to navigate the scholarly disputes, offering my own interpretive take on claims pertaining to areas of history in which I have worked. -- Phil Magness
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.