Is America Worth Saving?

The New York Times’ “1619 Project” has been widely discredited as presenting a false history of America’s involvement in slavery, but it is still used in many schools today. Their accusation is that America has been so bad, it is not worth saving. This class reviewed and countered the claims of that project.

The truth is that at a time when every nation in the world had slavery, America was the first nation to outlaw the slave trade, and the fourth to end slavery altogether - at a very high cost. Every people group in the world has both held slaves and been enslaved, and approximately 90 nations around the world still have not outlawed slavery; but America has been a leader in the efforts to eliminate that practice from the beginning.

Did you know that when the first slaves were brought to Jamestown, they were bought into an arrangement that achieved their freedom in about 7 years, and some then became wealthy landowners?

Did you know that when slaves were brought to Plymouth, they were set free and the ship’s crew was put in prison?

Did you know that the majority of those who signed the Constitution opposed slavery, and that George Mason - who owned slaves, but was not legally allowed to free them - refused to sign it because it did NOT end slavery? Thomas Jefferson also held slaves, but opposed slavery, which he made clear in the Declaration of Independence — but was likewise prevented from setting them free by Virginia’s laws.

Did you know that only about 2.5% of the slaves brought out of Africa during the 1500-1875 era came to America? Most of them were sold into Portugal, Brazil, Spain, France, and the Netherlands.

Did you know that black patriots participated in our fight for freedom from Great Britain, and some played key roles in our victory?

If you did not know those things, it may be because a very racist President Woodrow Wilson, under whose leadership the KKK was promoted, worked to eliminate the history of black Americans from our textbooks. He took as justification the racially-biased “scientific” opinions of Charles Darwin.

Although America had slaves, as every nation has, it has been a world leader in eliminating the practice. It was the first to begin legal actions to end slavery, in 1807, and several states had individually begun even earlier. Even now it is rated as the second-most active country working against it, of about 190 nations worldwide, of which almost 100 still have not banned slavery today.

“All men created equal” has been our guiding principle from the beginning, and no nation has paid a higher price to end slavery. To say America was “founded on slavery,” as the 1619 Project claims, is absurd.