Thread by @nytimes

We asked 16 writers to bring consequential moments in African-American history to life for the #1619Project. Here is a literary timeline of African-American history, told through original poetry and fiction. nyti.ms/2zixYYu

August 1619
by Clint Smith, about the Middle Passage:

“I slide my ring finger from Senegal
to South Carolina & feel the ocean
separate a million families”
nyti.ms/2zixYYu

1773
by Eve L. Ewing, about the black poet Phillis Wheatley:

"How many iambs to be a real human girl?
Which turn of phrase evidences a righteous heart?
If I know of Ovid may I keep my children?”
nyti.ms/2zixYYu

Jan. 1, 1808
by Jesmyn Ward, about the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves:

"The ones that owned and sold us was deaf to it. Was unfeeling of the tugging the children did on their fathers’ arms."
nyti.ms/2zixYYu

July 27, 1816
by Tyehimba Jess, about American troops attacking Negro Fort, a stockade in Spanish Florida left to the Black Seminoles:

"They fought only
for America to let them be
marooned — left alone —
in their own unchained,
singing,
worthy
blood"
nyti.ms/2zixYYu

Jan. 1, 1863
by Darryl Pinckney, about the Emancipation Proclamation:

"Imagine the scene I cannot write. The Colonel steps onto the platform, reciting to himself: I’ll tell you how the sun rose, a ribbon at a time."
nyti.ms/2zixYYu

Read more original fiction and poetry from the #1619Project here:
nyti.ms/2zixYYu