The 1619 Project : How The U.S. Failed As A Beacon For Liberty From The Beginning

Like The System, which I reviewed here, The 1619 Project edited by Nicole Hannah Jones, Caitlin Roper, Ilena Silverman and Jake Silverstein is a book that I borrowed from my landlady. I learned that it was originally an article for The New York Times Magazine, but it was expanded into an anthology.

                                           

Right wingers believe that school children need to be rescued from this book.  I'm sure it's not taught to children because it's way above grade school level.  It's far more likely to be taught in college history classes.

This book mentions that ten of the first twelve U.S. Presidents owned slaves.  I'd imagine that the two that didn't were the Adams Presidents--John Adams and John Quincy Adams.  I know that there were Presidents who considered themselves opponents of slavery who nevertheless owned slaves.  Thomas Jefferson is the best known anti-slavery enslaver, but Martin Van Buren was another according to my research.   We usually call that hypocricy, and I don't see any reason not to call Thomas Jefferson and Martin Van Buren hypocrites.  I read in a later essay in this book that Thomas Jefferson mortgaged his slaves to build Monticello.  So Mr. Jefferson, if you believed that your slaves were human beings, why would you have treated them like property?

The South was well-represented at the Constitutional Convention, and they got 20 more years for the Atlantic slave trade in addition to the three-fifths clause (Slaves count as three fifths of a person.  They can't vote, but counting them gains influence for enslavers.)and the fugitive slave cause. (Escaped slaves will be returned to their owners.) Ugh!

Lincoln thought that American democracy was intended for whites only, according to Hannah-Jones. I already knew that Lincoln thought that free blacks should live in a colony in Africa.  As I've indicated in earlier blog entries, I've never been a Lincoln fan and the news that Lincoln thought the U.S. should be for whites only makes me even less positive toward Lincoln.

 I also learned from Hannah-Jones that there was no public education in the South until the Reconstruction.  Black state legislators were responsible for compulsory education laws in Southern states. Louisiana and South Carolina briefly had some racially integrated schools during this period.  Reconstruction lasted only twenty years.  It was ended with violent White domestic terrorism.

An essay by Ibram X. Kendi included judgemental comments about the behavior of free blacks made by 19th century abolitionist William Garrison.  This implied to me that Garrison didn't really respect blacks at all.  His abolitionism was an abstract principle that had nothing to do with real people.  That's really disillusioning.

Kendi also revealed that the main reason why expanding slavery to the West was nixed was that it would take paying jobs away from white laborers.  I should have known. Abolitionists gave their speeches, but economic motives were what really prevailed.

There were numerous other insights in these essays which make this book highly recommended.  I am  glad that it was expanded from the original article.