Nikole-Hannah Jones, the famed conceptualizer of The New York Times’s 1619 Project, is one of the most protected and vaunted leftist personalities in America today. Such is the fascination with her venture that Oprah Winfrey plans to turn her ideas into a series of films and televised programs.
Telling the story of the American people is always a laudable goal. But we must counter attempts to indoctrinate citizens into believing that America is a distinctly callous nation.
The 1619 Project’s fabrications commit a horrific injustice on American history. The project perpetuates dangerous myths about the country’s founding, and by painting its roots as structurally racist and oppressive, it stokes racial tensions.
Yet despite the project’s myriad erroneous claims, they have been widely accepted and even celebrated. This must be countered. So, here are some of the most egregious myths this project foists on the country, along with corrections.
Myth 1: The Revolution Was Fought to Uphold Slavery
On the contrary, objections to slavery featured prominently in colonial America. James Otis, a leading critic of British rule, wrote, “The Colonists are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white or black.”
Quite early in colonial America, the congregation of Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania produced a 1688 document explicitly condemning slavery. By the end of the American Revolution, many Quakers were no longer slave owners. According to William M. Wiecek, an emeritus professor of history and law at Syracuse University, anti-slavery attitudes were prevalent throughout the Revolutionary Era: