{"id":17967,"date":"2023-02-01T19:57:25","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T00:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=17967"},"modified":"2023-02-01T22:21:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T03:21:30","slug":"new-york-post-1619-project-ignores-cause-of-american-revolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2023\/02\/01\/new-york-post-1619-project-ignores-cause-of-american-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"New York Post: 1619 Project Ignores Cause of American Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Post, February 2, 2023<\/h3>\n

To vilify our founders, Hulu\u2019s \u20181619\u2019 ignores what actually sparked the American Revolution<\/a><\/h1>\n
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By<\/p>\n

James Bovard<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 1619 Project is back in the news <\/a>with the release of the six-part Hulu series built around the claim that \u201cnearly everything that has made America exceptional grew out of slavery.\u201d Progressives have canonized the Nikole Hannah-Jones-led New York Times effort, which is being taught in more than 4,500 classrooms. But the project is riddled with faulty assumptions and factual errors<\/a> that have been debunked across the ideological spectrum.<\/p>\n

The 1619 Project\u2019s most harebrained idea is that the American Revolution was fought to preserve slavery. Slavery was barbaric, especially in the more southern states. But there was little slavery in the northern colonies, and they would not have risked their lives for its preservation.<\/p>\n

The 1619 storyline could not have passed the laugh test unless many Americans were clueless on the British brutality that sparked the war.<\/p>\n

Arthur Schlesinger Jr., President John F. Kennedy\u2019s court historian and a revered liberal intellectual, declared in 2004, \u201cHistorians today conclude that the colonists were driven to revolt in 1776 because of a false conviction<\/a> that they faced a British conspiracy to destroy their freedom.\u201d But the British imposition of martial law, suspension of habeas corpus and censorship were not simply deranged fantasies of Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n

Slavery did help spark the revolution, but it was \u201cslavery by Parliament\u201d \u2014 a common derisive phrase in founding-era America.<\/strong> The Declaratory Act of 1766 announced that Parliament \u201chad, hath, and of right ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the colonies and people of America, subjects of the crown of Great Britain, in all cases whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n

That meant Parliament could never do an injustice to the Americans, since Parliament had the right to use and abuse colonists as it pleased.<\/p>\n

Law after law trumpeted Americans\u2019 legal inferiority to their masters.<\/strong> The Sugar Act of 1764 resulted in British officials confiscating hundreds of American ships, based on mere allegations that the shipowners or captains were involved in smuggling. To retain their ships, Americans had to somehow prove they had never been involved in smuggling \u2014 a near-impossible burden.<\/p>\n

Britain imposed heavy taxes on imports and issued \u201cwrits of assistance\u201d entitling British soldiers to search any home for evidence that tariffs on tea or whiskey had been shirked. Massachusetts lawyer James Otis denounced those writs for conferring \u201ca power that places the liberty of every man in the hands of every petty officer.\u201d<\/p>\n