A Note on the New York Times’ 1619 Project

A Note on the New York Times’ 1619 Project

The NY Times writes: “In order to understand the brutality of American capitalism you have to start on the plantation.”

The importance of 1619 is that it was the year that the Jamestown British colony in Virginia formed the first representative assembly. But this is not what the NY Times emphasizes.

There were no plantations in the Virginia British colony in 1619. The 20 Africans were brought to Jamestown by a Dutch trader who offered them in exchange for food. The Africans became indentured servants as did in subsequent years many British who paid for their passage to the new world with years of labor service. https://www.saisd.net/admin/curric/sstudies/resources/teacher_zone/Hands_On/usto1877/pdf/ho_us1_1619_reading.pdf

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