The 1619 Project: Born on the Water, Picture Book

 

Update:

Jan. 25, 2022: This book got a lot of press and a lot of love at NCTE in November. NCTE is the national council for teachers of English. I wanted to include some teacher resources that are too good not to share.  The 1619 K-12 Curriculum Guide is created by Penguin Random House and is comprehensive and rich. 

Publication Date:

November 16, 2021

Authors: Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renee Watson

Illustrator: Nikkolas Smith

From the Publisher:

A young student receives a family tree assignment in school, but she can only trace back three generations. Grandma gathers the whole family, and the student learns that 400 years ago, in 1619, their ancestors were stolen and brought to America by white slave traders.
But before that, they had a home, a land, a language. She learns how the people said to be born on the water survived.

 
And the people planted dreams and hope,
willed themselves to keep
living, living.
 
And the people learned new words
for love
for friend
for family

for joy
for grow
for home.
 
With powerful verse and striking illustrations by Nikkolas Smith, Born on the Water provides a pathway for readers of all ages to reflect on the origins of American identity.

My Thoughts:

I was watching Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. the other night on the show Finding Your Roots. It is a genealogy show where they take celebrities and tell some things they found out about their ancestors based on historical records, news accounts, etc. If the white celebrities were in America before the European immigration, they many times had slave owners in their background. On the other hand, if they are African American, the stories usually stop at the point where their ancestor is sold. I don't think there is a way to trace back to Africa. 

This book in verse introduces a new to me term to describe those first babies that were born to slaves in America as the people who were born on the water. That phrase holds stories of survival and survivance. It is a powerful image.

**UPDATE 11/18/21 I am watching a session by the journalist and co-author Nikole Hannah-Jones and illustrator Nikkolas Smith at NCTE (national council for teachers of English) and they are talking about the extensive research put into this book, but also linking it to Ms. Hannah-Jones' larger 1619 Project: A new origin story. This book of essays, poems, and works of fiction highlights key moment of oppression, struggle and resistance. It demands of us as readers to look into how the 1619 act of bringing slaves to America continues to affect every part of contemporary American society. As a journalist, Ms. Hannah-Jones has done a lot of research to bring the factual truth out in order to locate the origins of the first African slaves, including their names as well as the fact that they were from Angola, they spoke Portuguese, they were literate, and most of them were already baptized as Catholics. 

What Ms. Hannah-Jones hopes to see in classrooms: Every American needs to know this origin story because it is an origin story for America not just an origin story for Black Americans. We can see each other in everyone's stories. There is growth when we read stories about other people and have empathy through those stories.

To educators:

I know this is a particularly challenging time to do an already challenging job. Educators saved my life. School is what saved me. This time calls for courage. There are people who don't want us to teach our children the truth. Our job as educators is to stand up in the face of people who want to keep us from teaching our children the things that they need to go out in this world as good citizens.  (Nikole Hannah-Jones)