By taking 1619, the date of African people’s arrival at Jamestown, as the nation’s symbolic origin, the New York Times’s ambitious 1619 Project has sought to reframe American historical understanding, though not without generating criticism about its choice of evidence and broad claims about slavery’s persistent legacy in American society. Together, our class examined a range of historical evidence to gauge the validity of the project’s interpretive claims and its usefulness as a defining national narrative. For this exhibit, each class member created a poster that documents their own perspectives on these questions. The posters explore facts and interpretations about noteworthy events from 1600 to 1877, inviting viewers to join the conversation begun in our classroom. In coming to know the thoughts of our peers, we open a window into the dynamic relationship between existing academic thought and diverging popular views on early American history.
