The 1619 Project: Born on the Water Flashcards
Trace your roots
Born on the Water
Draw a flag that represents your ancestral land
Born on the Water
I do not know where I begin, what my story is
Born on the Water
I tell her that I am ashamed.
Born on the Water
Come, let me tell you our beginning
Born on the Water
But before that dreadful voyage, there was a time when they did not pray for freedom.
Born on the Water
There was a time when they did not sing about overcoming
Born on the Water
Before they were enslaved, they were free
Born on the Water
The people were good with their hands, knew the power of a seed, how to plant it, water it, how to make something out of nothing
Born on the Water
The people were good with their minds, good at math and science.
Born on the Water
They used shells for money, counting, recording, trading
Born on the Water
They knew what their work was worth.
Born on the Water
Their hands had a knowing.
Born on the water
They knew how to hold a baby close, how to rock the child to keep her from crying.
Born on the Water
Their hands knew how to mix herbs, how to get the just-right flavor for a meal.
Born on the Water
Their hands knew how to beat and twist and shape iron
Born on the Water
Their hearts had a knowing.
Born on the Water
They knew how to make work joyful, how to create rhythm by pounding the tools against metal, knew how to make music to keep them company as they worked.
Born on the Water
Their minds had a knowing, worldly, curious, sharp.
Born on the Water
When they met the white people, they learned quick, taught their tongues to speak Portuguese, taught their eyes to read strange words.
Born on the Water
They knew how to mix the old with the new, how even an ancient people always had more to learn.
Born on the Water
And the people moved their feet, moved their whole bodies to the melody of horns and stringed instruments, of marimbas and drums.
Born on the Water
They danced to celebrate, to mourn
Born on the Water
They danced as a way of worship, to offer thanks.
Born on the Water
Their bodies a song under open sky and bright sun.
Born on the Water
Their bodies a swaying testament to the beauty of creation
Born on the Water
Kidnapped them.
Born on the Water
And the white people took them anyway.
Born on the Water
Baptized them in the name of their god.
Born on the Water
Stamped them with new names.
Born on the Water
Ours is no immigration story.
Born on the Water
No promises, whispered from mouth to ear, of seeing each other soon.
Born on the Water
They could not hug their fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, hearts thumping in rhythm, clinging to that final sweetness before the parting.
Born on the Water
Just wails and sobs
Born on the Water
They had no things.
Born on the Water
But they had their minds
Born on the Water
The old ways, the harvest songs, the just-right mix of herbs etched in their memories.
Born on the Water
They had their bodies.
Born on the Water
Histories and bloodlines and drums pulling in their veins.
Born on the Water
With trembling fingers they braided seeds into their hair, defiantly hiding tiny pieces of home to plant one day in new soils.
Born on the Water
No matter what some say, the people fought.
Born on the Water
And the white people took them anyway.
Born on the Water
