The 1619 Project: Born on the Water

Question 1

Trace your roots

Answer 1

Born on the Water

Question 2

Draw a flag that represents your ancestral land

Answer 2

Born on the Water

Question 3

I do not know where I begin, what my story is

Answer 3

Born on the Water

Question 4

I tell her that I am ashamed.

Answer 4

Born on the Water

Question 5

Come, let me tell you our beginning

Answer 5

Born on the Water

Question 6

But before that dreadful voyage, there was a time when they did not pray for freedom.

Answer 6

Born on the Water

Question 7

There was a time when they did not sing about overcoming

Answer 7

Born on the Water

Question 8

Before they were enslaved, they were free

Answer 8

Born on the Water

Question 9

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

Answer 9

Born on the Water

Question 10

The people were good with their minds, good at math and science.

Answer 10

Born on the Water

Question 11

They used shells for money, counting, recording, trading

Answer 11

Born on the Water

Question 12

They knew what their work was worth.

Answer 12

Born on the Water

Question 13

Their hands had a knowing.

Answer 13

Born on the water

Question 14

They knew how to hold a baby close, how to rock the child to keep her from crying.

Answer 14

Born on the Water

Question 15

Their hands knew how to mix herbs, how to get the just-right flavor for a meal.

Answer 15

Born on the Water

Question 16

Their hands knew how to beat and twist and shape iron

Answer 16

Born on the Water

Question 17

Their hearts had a knowing.

Answer 17

Born on the Water

Question 18

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.

Answer 18

Born on the Water

Question 19

Their minds had a knowing, worldly, curious, sharp.

Answer 19

Born on the Water

Question 20

When they met the white people, they learned quick, taught their tongues to speak Portuguese, taught their eyes to read strange words.

Answer 20

Born on the Water

Question 21

They knew how to mix the old with the new, how even an ancient people always had more to learn.

Answer 21

Born on the Water

Question 22

And the people moved their feet, moved their whole bodies to the melody of horns and stringed instruments, of marimbas and drums.

Answer 22

Born on the Water

Question 23

They danced to celebrate, to mourn

Answer 23

Born on the Water

Question 24

They danced as a way of worship, to offer thanks.

Answer 24

Born on the Water

Question 25

Their bodies a song under open sky and bright sun.

Answer 25

Born on the Water

Question 26

Their bodies a swaying testament to the beauty of creation

Answer 26

Born on the Water

Question 27

Kidnapped them.

Answer 27

Born on the Water

Question 28

And the white people took them anyway.

Answer 28

Born on the Water

Question 29

Baptized them in the name of their god.

Answer 29

Born on the Water

Question 30

Stamped them with new names.

Answer 30

Born on the Water

Question 31

Ours is no immigration story.

Answer 31

Born on the Water

Question 32

No promises, whispered from mouth to ear, of seeing each other soon.

Answer 32

Born on the Water

Question 33

They could not hug their fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, hearts thumping in rhythm, clinging to that final sweetness before the parting.

Answer 33

Born on the Water

Question 34

Just wails and sobs

Answer 34

Born on the Water

Question 35

They had no things.

Answer 35

Born on the Water

Question 36

But they had their minds

Answer 36

Born on the Water

Question 37

The old ways, the harvest songs, the just-right mix of herbs etched in their memories.

Answer 37

Born on the Water

Question 38

They had their bodies.

Answer 38

Born on the Water

Question 39

Histories and bloodlines and drums pulling in their veins.

Answer 39

Born on the Water

Question 40

With trembling fingers they braided seeds into their hair, defiantly hiding tiny pieces of home to plant one day in new soils.

Answer 40

Born on the Water

Question 41

No matter what some say, the people fought.

Answer 41

Born on the Water

Question 42

And the white people took them anyway.

Answer 42

Born on the Water