Oh, don't underestimate the importance of the first arrival of slaves to our country. Slavery is America's original sin, and even now, after 230ish years, a Civil War, and several rounds of groundbreaking civil rights advancements, one-sided race relations still plays a big part in just about every serious social issue we have, even if us white people can't always recognize it. We have been teaching history to our children from the perspective of the white folks in charge ever since, and we really, really need to expand our view to teach how our country has treated and been influence by Blacks, Natives, Asians, Latinos, and on and on.
That said, I haven't read the whole 1619 project, but from what I understand they advocate teaching that the arrival of the first slaves in 1619 was the true founding of our country, and that every positive advancement we have ever made was enabled by our American system of chattel slavery; I tend to think that both of those assertions are overcorrecting the issue too far. It would be a mistake for us to take the attention off of the drafting of the US Constitution, which after all, was the first time in human history that a nation was founded on the idea that slavery was bad, even if we didn't (and still sometimes don't) always live up to its promises.
But, like I said, I haven't read up on it entirely.
