The first Africans in Virginia were a group of "twenty and odd" captive enslaved persons originally from modern-day

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

who landed at

Old Point Comfort Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton, Virginia. Previously known as Point Comfort, it lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States. It was renamed ...

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

in late August 1619, whose arrival is seen as a beginning of the

history of slavery in Virginia Slavery in Virginia began with the capture and enslavement of Native Americans during the early days of the English Colony of Virginia and through the late eighteenth century. They primarily worked in tobacco fields. First Africans in Virginia, ...

and

the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and also as a starting point for

African-American history African-American history began with the arrival of Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Former Spanish slaves who had been freed by Francis Drake arrived aboard the Golden Hind at New Albion in California in 1579. The ...

, given that they were the first such group in mainland

British America British America comprised the colonial territories of the English Empire, which became the British Empire after the 1707 union of the Kingdom of England with the Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, in the Americas from 16 ...

. They were sold to the governor of Virginia by "Capt Jope", the commander of ''

The White Lion The ''White Lion'' was an English privateer operating under a Dutch letter of marque which brought the first Africans to the English colony of Virginia in 1619, a year before the arrival of the ''Mayflower'' in New England. Though the African c ...

'', who attacked and plundered them from the

slave ship Slave ships were large cargo ships specially built or converted from the 17th to the 19th century for transporting slaves. Such ships were also known as "Guineamen" because the trade involved human trafficking to and from the Guinea coast ...

''San Juan Bautista'', which was carrying over three hundred enslaved people who had been kidnapped from the

Kingdom of Ndongo The Kingdom of Ndongo, formerly known as Angola or Dongo, was an early-modern African state located in what is now Angola. The Kingdom of Ndongo is first recorded in the sixteenth century. It was one of multiple vassal states to Kongo, though ...

and were being forcibly sailed to

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

(modern-day

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

). Recognition of this event has been promoted since 1994 by Calvin Pearson and "Project 1619 Inc", an organization he founded in 2007, whose work led the

Virginia Department of Historic Resources The Virginia Department of Historic Resources is the State Historic Preservation Office for the Commonwealth of Virginia. The agency maintains the Virginia Landmarks Register (the first step for properties and districts in Virginia seeking listin ...

to install a historic marker commemorating this event at

in 2007 and the designation of this area as the Fort Monroe National Monument in 2011. Several commemorations of this event took place on its 400th anniversary in August 2019, including the starting of

The 1619 Project The 1619 Project is a long-form journalism endeavor developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, writers from ''The New York Times'', and ''The New York Times Magazine'' which "aims to reframe the country's history by placing the consequences of slavery an ...

(not associated with Project 1619, Inc.) with a publication by

Nikole Hannah-Jones Nikole Sheri Hannah-Jones (born April 9, 1976) is an American investigative journalist, known for her coverage of civil rights in the United States. In April 2015, she became a staff writer for ''The New York Times.'' In 2017 she was awarded a Ma ...

commemorating this event and the

Year of Return, Ghana 2019 The Year of Return, Ghana 2019 is an initiative of the government of Ghana – along with the U.S.-based Adinkra Group – that is intended to encourage African diasporans to come to Africa (specifically Ghana) to settle and invest in the continent ...

to encourage the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

to settle in and invest in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

From Angola to Mexico

During the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

, starting in the 16th century, Portuguese slave traders brought large numbers of African people across the Atlantic to work in their colonies in the Americas, such as

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. An estimated 4.9 million people from Africa were brought to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866. Thousands of people were captured by Portuguese slave traders and their African allies such as the

Imbangala The Imbangala or Mbangala were 17th-century groups of Angolan warriors and marauders who founded the Kasanje Kingdom. Origins The Imbangala were people, possibly from Central Africa, who appeared in Angola during the early 17th century. Their ori ...

, in invasions of the

(part of modern Angola) under Governor Luís Mendes de Vasconcellos. These captives were taken to port and often sent to other parts of the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire ( pt, Império Português), also known as the Portuguese Overseas (''Ultramar Português'') or the Portuguese Colonial Empire (''Império Colonial Português''), was composed of the overseas colonies, factories, and the l ...

s, which were brought together in that time by the

Iberian Union pt, União Ibérica , conventional_long_name =Iberian Union , common_name = , year_start = 1580 , date_start = 25 August , life_span = 1580–1640 , event_start = War of the Portuguese Succession , event_end = Portuguese Restoration War , ...

. Those taken captive from Angola may have belonged to the

Ambundu The Ambundu or Mbundu ( Mbundu: or , singular: (distinct from the Ovimbundu) are a Bantu people living in Angola's North-West, North of the river Kwanza. The Ambundu speak Kimbundu, and most also speak the official language of the country ...

ethnic group, an interpretation used at the

Jamestown Settlement Jamestown Settlement is a living history museum operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia, created in 1957 as Jamestown Festival Park for the 350th anniversary celebration. Today it includes a recreation of the original James Fort (c. 1607 to 1614 ...

Galleries. In 1619, the Portuguese

fluyt A fluyt (archaic Dutch: ''fluijt'' "flute"; ) is a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed by the shipwrights of Hoorn as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating in the Dutch Republic in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to facilit ...

''San Juan Bautista'' took a large group through the

Middle Passage The Middle Passage was the stage of the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of enslaved Africans were transported to the Americas as part of the triangular slave trade. Ships departed Europe for African markets with manufactured goods (first ...

from

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

in Angola to the bay of

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

in Mexico. Of the 350 total on the

, about 143 died in the voyage, and 24 children were sold during a stop at the

Colony of Santiago Santiago was a Spanish territory of the Spanish West Indies and within the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in the Caribbean region. Its location is the present-day island and nation of Jamaica. Pre-Columbian Jamaica Around 650 AD, Jamaica was co ...

in Jamaica, with 123 enslaved people eventually being taken to

, in addition to the smaller group of 20-30 taken by the privateers, or perhaps double that amount.

From Mexico to Virginia

Near Veracruz in the

Bay of Campeche The Bay of Campeche ( es, Bahía de Campeche), or Campeche Sound, is a bight (geography), bight in the southern area of the Gulf of Mexico, forming the north side of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It is surrounded on three sides by the Mexico, Mexic ...

, the English privateers ''

White Lion The white lion is a rare color mutation of the lion, specifically the Southern African lion. White lions in the area of Timbavati are thought to have been indigenous to the Timbavati region of South Africa for centuries, although the earliest r ...

'' and ''Treasurer'', operating under Dutch and Savoyard letters of marque and sponsored by the

Earl of Warwick Earl of Warwick is one of the most prestigious titles in the peerages of the United Kingdom. The title has been created four times in English history, and the name refers to Warwick Castle and the town of Warwick. Overview The first creation c ...

and

Samuel Argall Sir Samuel Argall (1572 or 1580 – 24 January 1626) was an English adventurer and naval officer. As a sea captain, in 1609, Argall was the first to determine a shorter northern route from England across the Atlantic Ocean to the new English c ...

, attacked the ''San Juan Bautista'', and each took 20-30 of the African captives to

on Hampton Roads at the tip of the Virginia Peninsula, the first time such a group was brought to mainland English America. Of those aboard the ''Treasurer'', only a few were sold in Virginia, the majority being taken shortly thereafter to

Nathaniel Butler Nathaniel Butler (born c. 1577, living 1639, date of death unknown) was an English privateer who later served as the colonial governor of Bermuda during the early 17th century. He had built many structures still seen in Bermuda today includin ...

in Bermuda. English privateers had been sailing under Dutch and other flags since the 1604 Treaty of London concluded the Anglo-Spanish War. The primary source document for the ''White Lion'''s arrival is as follows: One of the enslaved women from the ''Treasurer'' was called Angela, who was purchased by Captain William Peirce. She is the earliest historically attested enslaved African in the colony.

Artworks

Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller ( ; born Meta Vaux Warrick; June 9, 1877 – March 18, 1968) was an African-American artist who celebrated Afrocentric themes. At the fore of the Harlem Renaissance, Warrick was known for being a poet, painter, theater ...

included a

diorama A diorama is a replica of a scene, typically a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum. Dioramas are often built by hobbyists as part of related hobbies such as military vehicle mode ...

of the 1619 arrival as part of her commission for the 1907

Jamestown Exposition The Jamestown Exposition was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony, it w ...

, the first such granted to an African-American woman artist from the U.S. government. This work is no longer extant. The 1940

American Negro Exposition The American Negro Exposition, also known as the Black World's Fair and the Diamond Jubilee Exposition, was a world's fair held in Chicago from July until September in 1940, to celebrate the 75th anniversary (also known as a diamond jubilee) of t ...

included a historical diorama with a similar theme, and was restored in the 21st century. It is part of the collection of the Legacy Museum of Tuskegee University. Sidney E. King painted a historical scene of the 1619 arrival for the National Park Service in the 1950s.

Commemoration

Abraham Lincoln in his

second inaugural address Abraham Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address on Saturday, March 4, 1865, during Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, his second inauguration as President of the United States. At a time when victory over secessionists in the American ...

of 1865 refers to "the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil", which would be approximately 1615, according to scholar Diana Schaub an allusion to the events of 1619. The arrival was recognized by

George Washington Williams George Washington Williams (October 16, 1849 – August 2, 1891) was a soldier in the American Civil War and in Mexico before becoming a Baptist minister, politician, lawyer, journalist, and writer on African-American history. He served in the ...

as the starting point for African American history in the first comprehensive book ever written on the topic, the ''History of the Negro Race in America From 1619 to 1880: Negroes As Slaves, As Soldiers, And As Citizens'', published in 1882. The 350th anniversary of the arrival was marked in 1969 by a Virginia effort organized by civil rights attorney Oliver Hill, and with featured speaker Samuel DeWitt Proctor; it was however opposed by others including then-freshman state senator and future-Governor

Douglas Wilder Lawrence Douglas Wilder (born January 17, 1931) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction ...

as an occasion inappropriate for celebration. There was also a commemoration of the 375th anniversary in 1994. The 400th anniversary in 2019 was marked by the congressionally-chartered "400 Years of African-American History Commission" under the National Park Service, which administers Fort Monroe National Monument. That year also saw

of ''The New York Times'' and the Year of Return in Ghana.

References

{{Slavery in Virginia 1619 in the Thirteen Colonies 17th century in Angola African-American history of Virginia Angolan-American history Colony of Virginia First arrivals in the United States History of Hampton, Virginia History of slavery in Virginia Slavery in the British Empire

From Angola to Mexico

From Mexico to Virginia

Artworks

Commemoration

See also

References