Historian takes first episode of Hulu's 1619 Project APART in thread and SCHOOLS Nikole Hannah-Jones

Maybe Hulu should just put their 1619 Project under fiction?

That’s what it sounds like after reading this thread from an actual historian who was good enough to sit through the first episode of The 1619 Project and correct everything Nikole Hannah-Jones got wrong. This whole ‘history’ is fictional …

Sorry, not sorry.

We hope Hannah-Jones comes across this thread and learns a thing or two about ACTUAL history. Heck, Hulu too.

Just watched the Hulu 1619 Project's first episode. It leans heavily into the claim that the American Revolution was fought over slavery.

Lord Dunmore becomes an "emancipator" in Nikole Hannah-Jones's account, propped up by Woody Holton.

Not mentioned: Dunmore was an enslaver.

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

Gosh, those sound like super important pieces to include.

keep going.

Both @nhannahjones and @woodyholtonusc assert explicit parallels between Dunmore and Abraham Lincoln's emancipation proclamation. This stretches the evidence beyond all recognition. Dunmore's measure saw very limited use & only freed slaves on the condition of military service.

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

We feel shocked.

Oh, wait.

No.

They also falsely inflate the clause about slavery into the entirety of Dunmore's order. In fact, it was a single line (which also pertained to white indentured servants).

Other clauses imposed martial law, land confiscation, and called colonists into British military service. pic.twitter.com/LyxuwS7Nj3

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

But none of those things are convenient to Hannah-Jones’ narrative.

P-shaw.

Another misleading portrayal is the Hulu series' filming location. Hannah-Jones interviews Holton at the colonial governor's mansion in Williamsburg, strongly implying these events took place there.

They didn't. Dunmore had fled to a British ship and issued the order from exile. pic.twitter.com/YHLVbPLaIg

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

In fact, Dunmore had been living aboard the William – a ship off of Norfolk – since he fled Williamsburg on June 8, 1775.

Dunmore did not issue his proclamation until November 7th.

In other words, he had already lost the colony and was "governing" from exile on a navy ship.

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

Another important piece they conveniently left out.

Rewatched the segment and…hoo-boy.

Holton points at the governor's mansion in Williamsburg, claiming that Dunmore issued his proclamation from this building as a sign of its significance.

None of this is true. Dunmore fled months earlier & issued it from exile aboard a ship! pic.twitter.com/EdnycpAiVC

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

None of this is true.

YA’ DON’T SAY.

That’s unfortunate. Which version of the claim was used original/edited/book?

— Craig Bruce Smith (@craigbrucesmith) January 27, 2023

The presentation is almost intentionally imprecise. They dance around the whole "one of the causes" controversy by only focusing on Dunmore, and handwaving aside everything else about the Revolution.

An uninformed viewer would absolutely think that Dunmore was a mass-emancipator

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 27, 2023

Read that again.

The presentation is almost intentionally imprecise.

We’ll take that a step further and say it IS intentionally imprecise.

Dunmore captured free people and enslaved them, or do you mean he was a slave owner?

— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) January 27, 2023

Both. While governor of the Bahamas, he used his position to seize slaves from his political opponents and reallocate them to his friends.

— Phil Magness (@PhilWMagness) January 28, 2023