In August 2019, The New York Times commemorated the four hundred-year anniversary of the first black Africans arriving in the New World by launching a long-form journalism project called the 1619 Project. Developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project was designed to shift the focus of American history away from the American Revolution and hone in on the experiences of black Americans both before and after the Civil War. The 1619 Project immediately attracted both praise and criticism from historians and pundits alike and became another partisan football in the ongoing culture war that rages in the United States. There isn't time to address the many controversies that arose from the project in this episode, though I expect Joe will ask me about several in our discussion. Instead, for this final "what if" bonus episode, I want to look at how American history might be changed if what the 1619 Project's authors believe was factually true—what our country might have done differently if, as Nikole Hannah-Jones and others believe, the United States of America was actually founded to protect slavery and promote white supremacy.
What if, as the authors of the 1619 Project suggest, the United States was founded on oppression and slavery? Join us for our final episode in the "What if?" series as we explore this question.
Season Five of 15-Minute History will begin on Monday, October 4.