August 20, 1619 ”Hold Up There's More To That Story”

By Michael Guasco
SMITHSONIAN.COM
SEPTEMBER 13, 2017
The BLACKMAN WHO READS ALOUD
OUR ANCESTORS CAME LONG BEFORE AUGUST 20, 1619​, AND THAT'S A FACT

The Misguided Focus on 1619 as the Beginning of Slavery in the U.S. Damages Our Understanding of American History. The year 1619, the first supposed date enslaved Africans were brought to Jamestown is drilled into our students’ memories, but overemphasizing this date distorts that history. Today, across this nation many will hear and read of the story that August 20, 1619,​ was the date that 20 Angolan​ men and women left a Dutch ship to enter the colony of Jamestown. Thus beginning the horrific institution of slavery in what became the United States. However, that isn't the whole story in it's entirety. Because peoples of African descent were traveling to this new world long before 1619. They came as captives from European nations. Today I will read an article that details that covered up history.