Expanding Our Views of History Project 1619 - Understanding the Development of Our Country

American history has many facets. It can be told through a variety of perspectives in order to begin to understand the whole.


Clear thinking requires people to separate fact from fiction and to analyze whether what masquerades today as “information” comes from reliable sources. All too often, the ubiquitous internet and the stories supposedly rooted in history passed down from generation to generation fail to distinguish between objective truth and versions of reality heavily slanted by ideological bias.


Thanksgiving, a cherished holiday in the United States, provides a case in point. Is it in fact a celebration of a cordial dinner between Pilgrims and “Indians?” Or does this heartwarming tale, a Thomas Kinkaid view of the past, fail to accurately portray the plight of indigenous people, important elements of the Jamestown settlement, and more generally a truthful story of the enslaved Africans brought against their will to the early English colonies?


“History is written by the victors” (attributed to Winston Churchill)


PROJECT 1619

The 1619 Project is a supplementary high school history curriculum developed by writers at the New York Times in consultation with many authorities, including experts at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. It analyzes how slavery and the ensuing racism have influenced the development of the United States in arenas of politics, economics, and society. Its components were released in 2019 and include the Times magazine and broadsheet, a podcast, and online lesson plans. The title 1619 refers to the year one of the very early slave ships arrived in Virginia.


Project 1619 has not been without its detractors and critics. For example, Princeton University historian Sean Wilentz sent a letter to the New York Times Magazine in December, 2019, signed by four leading scholars, claiming that the Project misconstrued some historical facts and reflected “a displacement of historical understanding by ideology.”


For more information on “The 1619 Project” and Project Curriculum:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_1619_Project
https://pulitzercenter.org/lesson-plan-grouping/1619-project-curriculum


“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” (Winston Churchill)

Enslaved populations in the Thirteen Colonies in 1770.

Separating fact from fiction has never been easy, and the ease with which ideas are constructed and circulated in today’s computer-driver world only exacerbates the problem. Understanding the past, in view of the discordant ideological claims that vie for attention and the imprimatur of “truth,” requires rigorous historical analysis. But as educators and members of the Museum of Teaching and Learning—citizens who aspire to pass on what we have learned to future generations—we have an obligation to continually search for this elusive truth. We must depend in this endeavor on research, science, and anecdotal stories to the extent that they can be verified. Our work will never be complete. But in making the attempt, we will have made a contribution to a more enlightened society.


Submitted by Eva Postma, MOTAL Vice President and Director
Edits by Ronald Wolff