A dramatic expansion of a groundbreaking work of journalism, The
1619 Project: A New Origin Story offers a profoundly revealing
vision of the American past and present.
In late August 1619,
a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of
twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to
the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery
that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to
as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the
source of so much that still defines the United States.
The New York Times
Magazine’s award-winning “1619 Project” issue reframed our
understanding of American history by placing slavery and its
continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This new
book substantially expands on that work, weaving together eighteen
essays that explore the legacy of slavery in present-day America with
thirty-six poems and works of fiction that illuminate key moments of
oppression, struggle, and resistance. The essays show how the
inheritance of 1619 reaches into every part of contemporary American
society, from politics, music, diet, traffic, and citizenship to
capitalism, religion, and our democracy itself.
This is a book that
speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of
race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals
long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and
construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end
with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life.