More Evidence Against the 1619 Project

Originally Published on The National Review

The “1619 Project” is the product of a faux newspaper (the New York Times) and a faux journalist (Nikole Hannah-Jones) meant to convince people that the U.S. is an irredeemably racist country. One of its claims is that the American Revolution occurred because the inhabitants of the colonies were afraid that Britain was going to abolish slavery.

That sloppy notion has been debunked over and over (as has the rest of the thing). GMU economics professor Don Boudreaux here offers another telling blow, namely the views of John and Abigail Adams on slavery, which they abhorred.

The fact of the matter is that the 1619 Project is not really about history at all. It’s about the future. The NYT and Ms. Hannah-Jones want to instill animosity toward the U.S. today in hopes that readers will adopt the “progressive” mindset that the country must be transformed from a liberal (in the original sense of the word) republic into a tightly controlled socialist nanny state run by the elites. You’ll never find a 1619 Project advocate saying, e.g., “Now if we want to speed up minority economic gains, we should abolish minimum wage laws, occupational licensing laws, rent control, public education, and the welfare system.”

The 1619 Project isn’t serious history. It’s a serious attempt at mind control….