The 1619 Project: Difference between revisions

The 1619 Project was launched in August 2019 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the [[First Africans in Virginia|first enslaved Africans]] in the British [[colony of Virginia]].<ref name="nyx"/><ref name="NYTM"/> In 1619, a group of "twenty and odd" captive Africans arrived in the Virginia Colony. An English [[privateer]] operating under a Dutch [[letter of marque]], ''[[The White Lion|White Lion]]'', carried 20–30 Africans who had been captured in joint African-Portuguese raids<ref name="painter">{{Cite book |first=Nell Irvin |last=Painter |url=https://archive.org/details/creatingblackame00pain/page/23 |title=Creating Black Americans: African-American history and its meanings, 1619 to the present |date=2006 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford, England |isbn=0-19-513755-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/creatingblackame00pain/page/23 23–24] |oclc=57722517 }}</ref> against the [[Kingdom of Ndongo]] in modern-day [[Angola]], making its landing at [[Old Point Comfort|Point Comfort]] in the English colony of Virginia.<ref name="nyx" /><ref name="AN">{{cite journal|url=https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-1619-project-nytimes.php|title=The 1619 Project and the stories we tell about slavery|last=Neason|first=Alexandria|journal=[[Columbia Journalism Review]]|publisher=[[Columbia University Press]]|location=New York City|date=August 15, 2019|access-date=August 17, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816150145/https://www.cjr.org/analysis/the-1619-project-nytimes.php|archive-date=August 16, 2019|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although the project places this moment in the context of [[slavery in the colonial history of the United States]], some critics have taken issue.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2019/02/08/1619-african-arrival-virginia/2740468002/|title=1619: 400 years ago, a ship arrived in Virginia, bearing human cargo|date=February 8, 2019|newspaper=[[USA Today]]}}</ref> The Africans brought to Virginia in 1619 were not in chattel slavery as it would develop in the United States, but were sold as [[indentured servants]] and had mostly worked off their indentures and were free by 1630.<ref name="Ford2019">{{cite news |last1=Ford |first1=Clyde W |title=Servants or slaves? How Africans first came to America matters |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/servants-or-slaves-how-africans-first-came-to-america-matters/ |access-date=1 March 2024 |work=[[Seattle Times]] |date=August 29, 2019}}</ref> The first enslaved Africans were brought to [[North America]] in 1526,<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/23/everyone-is-talking-about-thats-not-actually-when-slavery-america-started/ |title=Perspective - Everyone is talking about 1619. But that's not actually when slavery in America started. |last=Torres-Spelliscy |first=Ciara |date=August 23, 2019 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=December 6, 2019 |language=en |archive-date=December 7, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207182404/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/23/everyone-is-talking-about-thats-not-actually-when-slavery-america-started/ |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Slavery among the indigenous peoples of the Americas#European enslavement of indigenous peoples|European enslavement of Native Americans]] has been documented as far back as Columbus in 1493–94. (There is also some evidence for free Africans from Spain among [[Christopher Columbus]]' crew.<ref>{{cite news|first=Kari|last=Lydersen|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051701885.html|title=Dental Studies Give Clues About Christopher Columbus's Crew|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=May 18, 2009}}</ref>)