Pulitzer Prize to New York Times Essay Falsely Claiming American Revolution Was Fought to Preserve Slavery

The 2020 Pulitzer Prize for commentary was awarded Monday to Nikole Hannah-Jones for an essay in the New York Times that falsely claimed the American Revolution was fought primarily to protect slavery.

The essay, titled “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true,” launched the Times‘ controversial 1619 project.

The essay incorrectly claimed that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776 (signing began weeks later, on August 2).

However, the far more egregious error was Hannah-Jones’s claim about the cause for which the Revolution was fought. She wrote: “Conveniently left out of our founding mythology is the fact that one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.”

That passage, which appeared in the original text, has since been updated to include the word “some” (emphasis added): “Conveniently left out of our founding mythology is the fact that one of the primary reasons some of the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.”

Historians were outraged by Hannah-Jones’s false claim. One of them, Northwestern University Professor Leslie Harris, was enthusiastic about the 1619 Project, but furious about the inaccurate claim. Harris recalled in Politico:

Trump announces two-year closure of Trump Kennedy Center for major renovations

NYPD officers save choking 2-year-old boy, bodycam video shows

Government shutdowns may be fewer, but they’re increasingly disruptive

Trump considers legal action against Michael Wolff and Epstein estate after latest document release

What Tyler Robinson’s defense wants hidden and why prosecutors and media say no in court

‘Christ or Chaos’: Former Pastor of Invaded Minneapolis Church Has a Message for America

How Activists Embed Leftist Ideology in K–12 Schools

Deputy attorney general says ‘I don’t know’ why Gabbard was present at Georgia FBI raid

Senate Republicans push for House GOP rebellion against funding package, voter ID legislation

From Rodney King to Spitting and Kicking Alex Pretti, the Left’s Flawed Hero Worship Never Changes

Former Planned Parenthood Worker Gives Haunting Account of Her Past Work

Melania Trump’s $8 million opening best documentary debut in over 10 years

What Trump’s next pick to lead the Federal Reserve means for your wallet

Homan Snaps Back at CNN Reporter Accusing ICE of Instilling ‘Fear’

Trump Drops Massive $10B Lawsuit on IRS, Treasury for Leaking His Tax Info

On August 19 of last year I listened in stunned silence as Nikole Hannah-Jones, a reporter for the New York Times, repeated an idea that I had vigorously argued against with her fact-checker: that the patriots fought the American Revolution in large part to preserve slavery in North America.

…

I vigorously disputed the claim. Although slavery was certainly an issue in the American Revolution, the protection of slavery was not one of the main reasons the 13 Colonies went to war.

…

Overall, the 1619 Project is a much-needed corrective to the blindly celebratory histories that once dominated our understanding of the past—histories that wrongly suggested racism and slavery were not a central part of U.S. history. I was concerned that critics would use the overstated claim to discredit the entire undertaking. So far, that’s exactly what has happened.

The current version of Hannah-Jones’s essay preserves other controversial statements, such as the claim that “Anti-black racism runs in the very DNA of this country,” which repeats (almost verbatim) a claim then-President Barack Obama made in 2015 to National Public Radio that racism is “still part of our DNA.”