When did you learn about it? None of the leading scholars of the whole period from the Revolution to the Civil War, as far I know, have been consulted. The “1619 Project” is made up of multiple stories and poems about racism and slavery.It suggests America’s “true founding” was when the first slaves arrived in 1619 and “aims to reframe the country’s history.” Written by journalists and opinion writers, the project has already received criticism from many conservatives.. Yet you are certainly one of the foremost authorities on the American Revolution, which the 1619 Project trains much of its fire on. The group included previous critics James McPherson, Gordon Wood, Victoria Bynum, and James Oakes, along with a new signature from Sean Wilentz. The 1619 Project is a controversial collection of revisionist history developed by The New York Times to "reframe" American history exclusively around slavery and racism. They had no need to defend slavery earlier because it was taken for granted as a natural part of a hierarchical society. The Deep South was given 20 years to import more slaves, but most Americans were confident that the despicable transatlantic slave trade was definitely going to end in 1808. That’s essentially what he says to Jefferson. It is “a very unbalanced, one-sided account.” It is “wrong in so many ways.” It is “not only ahistorical,” but “actually anti-historical.” You see politicians wanting to play down their distinctiveness, their elite status. He Escaped Death as a Kamikaze Pilot. He couldn’t get his colleagues to go along, but he was certainly courageous in voicing his opposition to slavery. A. It’s been argued by some historians, people other than Hannah-Jones, that some planters in colonial Virginia were worried about what the British might do about slavery. Gordon Wood & Tom Mackaman, World Socialist Web Site. One of the ironies of this Project 1619 is that they are saying the same things about the Declaration of Independence as the fire-eating proponents of slavery said—that it’s a fraud. And then when the American Revolution occurs, Australia becomes the replacement. The New York Times’ 1619 Project entered a new phase of historical assessment when the paper published a scathing criticism by five well-known historians of the American Revolution and Civil War eras. In France, we always had this Charles Dickens Tale of Two Cities view of the society, with a nobleman riding through the village and running over children and so on. That’s sad because it will color the views of all these youngsters who will receive the message of the 1619 Project. Q. Hannah-Jones refers to America’s founding documents as its founding myths…. It is the most powerful statement ever made in our history, and it lies behind almost everything we Americans believe in and attempt to do. But the document he wrote and his confidence in the capacities of ordinary people are real, and not myths. In 1776, Britain, despite the Somerset decision, was certainly not the great champion of antislavery that the Project 1619 suggests. Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Defenders of ethnic studies argue the movement is a necessary corrective to a … That was the gist of the writings of William Manning, the obscure Massachusetts farmer, writing in the 1790s. There’s a good book on this subject by Wesley Frank Craven [ The Legend of the Founding Fathers (1956)]. Many of the white Frenchmen fled to North America—to Louisiana, to Charleston, and they brought their fears of slave uprisings with them. A. We know how the story turned out, and we somehow assume they should know what we know, but they don’t, of course. A. What the New York Times’s “1619 Project” missed. 1776 v. 1619: Two Visions of American History. None of the leading scholars of the whole period from the Revolution to the Civil War, as far I know, have been consulted. But after the Revolution that’s no longer true. Well, I was surprised when I opened my Sunday New York Times in August and found the magazine containing the project. But we had an aristocracy of sorts. Historian Gordon Wood on The 1619 Project. A. It’s a good question. With the exception of Wilentz, all of these American historians criticized the 1619 Project at the World… It’s Lincoln who rescues the eighteenth-century founders for us. The Trump Administration Just Made the Citizenship Test Harder. New Senator Tuberville Seems to Lack Basic Knowledge of World War II. Yes, it was set in the Constitution at 20 years, but everyone knew this would be ended because nearly everyone knew that this was a barbaric thing, importing people and so on. They don’t know their future any more than we know our future, and so many of them thought that slavery would die away, and at first there was considerable evidence that that was indeed the case. Wilfred McClay & … Q. The “1619 Project” is made up of multiple stories and poems about racism and slavery.It suggests America’s “true founding” was when the first slaves arrived in 1619 and “aims to reframe the country’s history.” Written by journalists and opinion writers, the project has already received criticism from many conservatives. Historian Gordon Wood on The 1619 Project. Directed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project attempts to reframe our understanding of American history by alleging the central event in the founding of the United States was the first importation of enslaved Africans to Virginia in 1619 and not the Declaration of Independence in 1776. These blatant and malicious lies spread by the 1619 Project are a new low for American progressives, and the fact that "woke" fiction is now masquerading as … She claims the British were on the warpath against the slave trade and slavery and that rebellion was the only hope for American slavery. What Does African American Studies Need to Thrive? The leading Anti-Federalist, Melancton Smith, a very smart guy but a middling sort and with no college graduate degree, gives the highly educated Alexander Hamilton and Robert Livingston a run for their money. Up to that point, both sections lived with illusions. Beginning in October 2019, the World Socialist Web Site published a series of interviews with prominent historians critical of the 1619 Project, including Victoria E. Bynum, James M. McPherson, Gordon S. Wood, James Oakes, Richard Carwardine and Clayborne Carson. As a result of the Revolution, slavery is confined to the South, and that puts the southern planters on the defensive. With the Revolution, all this came under assault. But the Georgians and the South Carolinians weren’t ready to do that yet. I was surprised, as many other people were, by the scope of this thing, especially since it’s going to become the basis for high school education and has the authority of the New York Times behind it, and yet it is so wrong in so many ways. That coincidence I think is important. Q. And they don’t appreciate what a radical message is involved in declaring that all men are created equal and what that message means for our obsession with education, and the implications of that for our society. That Jefferson, a slaveholding aristocrat, has been—until recently—our spokesman for democracy, declaring that all men are created equal, is probably the greatest irony in American history. The group included previous critics James McPherson, Gordon Wood, Victoria Bynum, and James Oakes, along with a new signature from Sean Wilentz. I don’t think people realize just what a cruel and brutal world existed in the Ancién Regime, in the premodern societies of the West, not just for slaves, but for lots of people who were considered the mean or lowly sort. There is still slavery today in the world. Indentured servitude was prevalent everywhere. Historian Gordan Wood speaks with WSWS about American Revolution and the NYT 1619 Project. The elimination of servitude suddenly made slavery more conspicuous than it had been in a world of degrees of unfreedom. The Declaration is an Enlightenment document because it repudiated the Ancién Regime assumption that all men are created unequal and that nothing much could be done about it. Virginians began to grow wheat in place of tobacco. Gordon Wood, Richard Carwardine, James McPherson, Victoria Bynum, James Oakes, and now Leslie M. Harris have all come out criticizing the 1619 Project. Lincoln makes Jefferson the great hero of America. And one of the things that they stressed was that there was no aristocracy, no native aristocracy, in America, but you find, if I recall your argument in The Radicalism of the American Revolution, that though aristocracy was not strong, it was something that was still a powerful factor. Wilfred McClay & … He’s not going to preach to them. Multiple historians criticized The New York Times Magazine’s “1619 Project,” calling the reframing of history ridiculous and false. From that moment on I think the Civil War became inevitable. Podcast: Lucas Morel Breaks Down The 1619 Project. So this is what’s missed by these essays in the 1619 Project. His friend Adams was, of course, opposed to slavery from the beginning, and this is something that Hannah-Jones should have been aware of. They belonged to their masters, who could sell them. Wilfred McClay & Bob Woodson, National Association of Scholars. '1619 Project' originator Nikole Hannah ... Brown University emeritus professor Gordon Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the American Revolution. There may have been individuals who were worried about their slaves in 1776, but to see the whole revolution in those terms is to miss the complexity. ... James Oakes of the City University of New York and Gordon S. Wood … In my discussion with James Oakes, he made the point about the emergence of the Democratic Party in the 1820s, that in the North it can’t do what the southern slave owners really want it to do, which is to say slaves are property, but what they do instead is to begin to promote racism. This made the American Revolution out to be like the Civil War, where the South seceded to save and protect slavery, and that the Americans 70 years earlier revolted to protect their institution of slavery. Yet it was a powerful revolution in its time. In one perplexing tweet , she singled out the critics as “white historians” (oddly neglecting the lack of racial diversity among the scholars who advised Desmond’s own 1619 Project contribution). When did you learn about it? Gordon Wood, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian on United States history, recently spoke with WSWS reporter Tom Mackaman about the New York Times' 1619 Project, the history of slavery, and the legacy of the American Revolution. One of the big lessons of history is to realize how the past doesn’t know its future. Gordon Wood is professor emeritus at Brown University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, as well as Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815, and dozens of other books and articles on the colonial period, the American Revolution and the early republic. Professor Emeritus of History Gordon Wood P’86 co-wrote a letter to the editor requesting a correction to the New York Times Magazine’s acclaimed 1619 Project with four other professors from different universities. Of course, I think the ultimate turning point for both sections is the Missouri crisis of 1819–1820. They couldn’t own property. I just think that people need to know just how bad the Ancién Regime was. A. There’s no European-type aristocracy, the kind of rich, hereditary aristocracy of the sort that existed in England—great landholders living off the rents of their tenants. Search Input. ‘So wrong in so many ways” is how Gordon Wood, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the American Revolution, characterized the New York Times’s “1619 Project.” The southern slaveholding planters certainly came closest to the English model, but even in the more egalitarian North there was an aristocracy of sorts. “Gentleman” was a legal distinction, and such gentlemen were treated differently in the society because of that distinction. The idea that the Revolution occurred as a means of protecting slavery—I just don’t think there is much evidence for it, and in fact the contrary is more true to what happened. T he reviews of the 1619 Project are in.. I think the important point to make about slavery is that it had existed for thousands of years without substantial criticism, and it existed all over the New World. Sections. Historian Gordan Wood speaks with WSWS about American Revolution and the NYT 1619 Project. That it’s as bad now as it was during slavery, and instead what you’re describing is a very changed world... A. The 1619 Project, according to the ... James M. McPherson and Sean Wilentz of Princeton University, James Oakes of the City University of New York and Gordon S. Wood of Brown University. So the convict was sent as a bonded servant to the colonies, 50,000 of them. How Would You Do? You can read it here. He never argues that blacks are inferior. RE: The 1619 Project We write as historians to express our strong reservations about important aspects of The 1619 Project. For the first time they have to defend the institution. Gordon Wood & Tom Mackaman, World Socialist Web Site. His colleagues could have, as we say today, “cancelled” him if they didn’t have some sympathy for what he was saying. Because it seems to me that this concept certainly becomes a burning issue by the time of the Civil War. But similar kinds of brutalities and cruelties existed in the English-speaking world in the way common people were treated. That’s the kind of question that should provoke historical curiosity. I had no warning about this. When it comes to the New York Times’s 1619 Project, anthropologist Peter Wood minces no words.. Toward the end of his book, 1620: A Critical Response to the 1619 Project, he makes abundantly clear why such a response is essential. I read the Jim McPherson interview and he was just as surprised as I was. And southerners come to realize that the North is so opposed to slavery that it will attempt to block them from extending it into the West. Yes, no one ever approached me. If you go into the colonial records and look at the writings and diary of someone like William Byrd, who’s a very distinguished and learned person—he’s a member of the Royal Society—you’ll find no expressions of guilt whatsoever about slavery. The letter objected most particularly to poor factual scholarship of some of Hannah-Jones works. The “1619 Project” is made of multiple stories and poems about racism and slavery, and is written by journalists and opinion writers. The United States of America began in 1776, not 1619. It was an age of revolution, and it’s not surprising that the French Revolution and other revolutions occur in in the wake of the American Revolution. So to somehow turn this around and make the Revolution a means of preserving slavery is strange and contrary to the evidence. I just couldn’t believe this. Historian Gordan Wood speaks with WSWS about American Revolution and the NYT 1619 Project. ET on December 23, 2019. Only because of the Declaration of Independence. There were no aristocrats in America, he said; they existed only in Europe. Trump Hints at Another Act in Four Years, Just Like Grover Cleveland, Laws and Customs Guide Presidential Transitions — But Some Go off the Rails Anyway, Democrats Introduce Legislation to Strike Slavery Exception in 13th Amendment, Washington History Seminar: Mira Siegelberg on "Statelessness: A Modern History" (Monday, Dec. 7), Beloved University of Kentucky History Professor Dies from COVID-19 Months into Retirement, David Hackett, Historian and Holocaust Expert, Dies at 80, American History Scholar Richard Polenberg Dies at 83. 1776 v. 1619: Two Visions of American History. The Somerset decision was limited to England, where there were very few slaves, and it didn’t apply to the Caribbean. Q. I want to return to the question of slavery and the American Revolution, but first I wanted to follow up, because you said you were not approached. He envies the town meetings of New England, those little ward republics. Interview with Gordon Wood on the American Revolution[3 March 2015], International Committee of the Fourth International, Interview with Gordon Wood on the American Revolution. He sees a catastrophe in the works, and he can’t do anything about it. Washington does this, and he comes to see himself as more a farmer than a planter. Then, with Gabriel’s Rebellion in Virginia in 1800, most of the optimism that Virginians had in 1776—1790 is gone. ‘We disagree,’ says the New York Times. She attacked the scholarly credentials of James McPherson and Gordon Wood, two of the most famous historians to question her narrative. 1776 v. 1619: Two Visions of American History. Of course, there are great ironies in our history, but the men and the documents transcend their time. Q. I read the first essay by Nikole Hannah-Jones, which alleges that the Revolution occurred primarily because of the Americans’ desire to save their slaves. Podcast: Lucas Morel Breaks Down The 1619 Project. You were born a patrician or a plebeian and that was your fate. An interview with historian Gordon Wood on the New York Times' 1619 Project — Gordon Wood is professor emeritus at Brown University and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Radicalism of the American Revolution, as well as Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic … Western Europe had already more or less done away with slavery. Kenneth C. Zirkel/Wikimedia Defenders of ethnic studies argue the movement is a necessary corrective to a … Is Slavery in America's DNA? Steve Hayward & Lucas Morel, Ricochet. But the black rebellion in Saint-Domingue—the Haitian Revolution—scares the bejesus out of the southerners. He told his fellow Americans, look, we don’t need to pay too much attention to those guys. Can you discuss the relationship between the American Revolution and the institution of slavery? “The 1619 Project is, arguably, part of a larger effort to destroy America by people who find it unbearably bad,” writes Wood. Assuming that work was despicable and mean was what justified slavery. The 1619 Project is an ongoing project developed by The New York Times Magazine in 2019 which "aims to reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of [The United States'] national narrative." The 1619 Project’s Fake History, covers the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project. Q. Consequently, juries became somewhat reluctant to convict to hanging a person for stealing a handkerchief. Is Slavery in America's DNA? The 1619 Project’s Fake History, covers the New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project. Q. That one sentence is the thesis statement of “1776”—a non-partisan black-led response to the New York Times’s “1619 Project” initiative, which launched last week at D.C.’s National Press Club. Now we know they couldn’t have been more wrong. Q. Slavery grows stronger after the Revolution, but it’s concentrated in the South. He’s absolutely panicked by what’s happening, and these last years of his life leading up to 1826 are really quite sad because he’s saying these things. It was very important that the American colonial crisis, the imperial crisis, occurred right at the height of what we call the Enlightenment, where Western Europe was full of new ideas and was confident that culture—what people believed and thought—was man-made and thus could be changed. John Adams is the leading advocate in the Continental Congress for independence. Q. I want to return to the question of slavery and the American Revolution, but first I wanted to follow up, because you said you were not approached. 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