For the first time in a long time, I have a book I really want to read. A dangerous book, apparently. I fine the intro challenging to my Massachusetts/Plymouth Rock upbringing. So far, so good. 
In the hopes of encouraging others to read, I'm going to tweet about it as honestly as I can. 1619 refers to an event in the Jamestown settlement which predates the arrival of the pilgrims in Plymouth.
I still have difficulty believing that there was a European colony before Plymouth -Jamestown in 1618. 1619 is the date that the first ship bringing African slaves arrived. Plymouth Colony was settled in 1620. 2019 was the 400th anniversary of the first African slaves in the US
I learned this last night. I was vaguely aware of the premise of the book (a telling of US history which includes enslaved people), but only because I was aware of the controversy about the book. I am saddened by that ignorance, but I am sure I am not alone in it.
I don't want to give away too much, but the author's (Nikole Hanna-Jones) account of her youthful embarrassment of her WWII vet father's open American patriotism is extremely moving.
And the point that the Founding Fathers knowingly adopted slave rhetoric against Britain is a gut punch. G. Washington: "we must assert our Rights or [become] Slaves, as the Blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway."
The opening essay is a very, very powerful argument on how slavery drove the American revolution. It is hard to express how different this is from "what I knew". And it makes perfect sense.
Further pushing back on my Northern, abolitionist bias: "the White sons of Virginia initiates the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.". Most of Virginia's wealth was in slaves.
23 pages in and I have already learned much I needed to know. STRONG RECOMMEND #1619Project
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