“A lot of ideas were considered, but ultimately we decided that there was an undeniable power in narrowing our focus to the very place that this issue kicks off,” said Jessica Dimson, the deputy director of photography of the magazine. “Dannielle Bowman’s solemn photograph of the water is not just symbolic, but it is also a document of living histor y .”

Nearly every piece in the issue is anchored by a contemporary image — a constant reminder that even though slavery was formally abolished more than 150 years ago, its legacy has remained insidious. Each decision, from which kind of fonts to use to the illustrations, was an attempt to balance the events of the past with their present-day implications. Poems and short stories, specifically created for this project by some of the most influential black artists working today, such as Jesmyn Ward, Barry Jenkins and Lynn Nottage, populate the pages between each essay, offering a kind of literary timeline of black life in America over the last 400 year s.

In the time that the issue was coming together, through a series of conversations between Mr. Silverstein; Ms. Hannah-Jones; Ms. Silverman; Ms. Dimson; Gail Bichler ; Kathy Ryan, director of photography; and Caitlin Roper, the editorial director of The New York Times Magazine Labs, Ms. Hannah-Jones’s initial pitch morphed, and expanded , into a special project , something that would go far beyond just one issue of the magazine and involve other departments at The Times.

“ I like the notion that a project is a kind of activity that you engage in toward a goal, and that’s the best way I can think of to describe what this is,” said Mr. Silverstein.

The special section, which was spearheaded by Ms. Roper and Deb Bishop, the team’s art director, went through several iterations before it was decided that it would focus on painting a more full, but by no means comprehensive, picture of the institution of slavery itself.

“The idea was to use historical objects and visuals from the National Museum of African American History and Culture as a jumping-off point to pull readers in and begin to tell them this history,” said Ms. Roper.