Many scholars have criticized “The 1619 Project” for its historical inaccuracy. The people behind it don’t care because their sole concern is pushing for the transformation of the U.S., but anyone with an ounce of intellectual integrity ought to look askance at it.
One of the claims “1619” makes is that slavery began in North America in that year — and therefore that year should be regarded as our real “founding.” But that’s not true, as Paul Schwennensen shows in this AIER article.
He writes,
Though it’s not likely to go very far, I’d like to toss another potato into the fire and point out that slavery was well-established in North America at least one hundred years before the alleged “beginning” of the American slavery story. Complete with the myriad complexities, contradictions and paradoxes of real life, the Spanish Americas (including much of what is today the United States) were awash in slavery. Slavery between Indians. Enslavement of Indians by Spaniards. Enslavement of Spaniards by Indians. And yes, tragically, enslavement of blacks, ladinos, Moors, and every distinction between. It was messy, it was endemic, and it was very real—but it was certainly not confined exclusively to Blacks, nor to early Americans in Virginia. Perhaps this deeper, more complex history might be called the 1519 Project.
The academics who are eager to teach the 1619 Project say that they’re only interested in seeing that students learn our history. However, you’ll never hear them say that it was widespread long before 1619. Nor will any of them inform their students that the opponents of slavery in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries were also advocates of economic liberalism, which is to say, capitalism.
Read the whole thing.