First Africans in Virginia: Difference between revisions

The '''first Africans in Virginia''' were a group of "twenty and odd" captivescaptive persons originally from modern-day [[Angola]] who landed at [[Old Point Comfort]] in [[Hampton, Virginia]] in late August 1619,. whoseTheir arrival is seen as a beginning of the [[history of slavery in Virginia]] and [[Thirteen Colonies|British colonies in North America]], although they were not in [[chattel slavery]] as it would develop in the United States, but were sold as [[Indentured servitude|indentured servants]] and had mostly worked off their indentures and were free by 1630.<ref name="Ford2019">{{cite news |last1=Ford |first1=Clyde W |title=Servants or slaves? How Africans first came to America matters |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/servants-or-slaves-how-africans-first-came-to-america-matters/ |access-date=1 March 2024 |work=[[Seattle Times]] |date=August 29, 2019}}</ref> These colonies would go on to secede and become the United States in 1776. The landing of these captive Africans is also seen as a starting point for [[African-American history]], given that they were the first such group in mainland [[British America]].<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Africans, Virginia's First – Encyclopedia Virginia|url=https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/africans-virginias-first/|access-date=2021-05-31|language=en-US}}</ref>

They were sold to the governor of Virginia by "Capt Jope", the commander of ''the [[The White Lion]]|''White Lion'']], who attacked and plundered them from the [[slave ship]] ''SanSão JuanJoão BautistaBaptista'', which was carrying over three hundred enslaved people who werehad been kidnapped infrom the [[Kingdom of Ndongo]] region of Angola and were being forcibly sailed to [[New Spain]] (modern-day [[Mexico]]).<ref name="ap20190207">{{cite news |last=Holland |first=Jesse J. |date=2019-02-07 |title=Researchers seek fuller picture of first Africans in America |url=https://apnews.com/article/north-america-us-news-race-and-ethnicity-africa-va-state-wire-3501ba52dba0455597b3e7a330d2f50c |work=[[Associated Press]] |location=[[Washington, D.C.]] |access-date=2021-11-26}} </ref> Upon arrival, they were sold as [[indentured servants]].<ref name="Ford2019"/> 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]] to install a historic marker commemorating this event at [[Old Point Comfort]] in 2007 and the designation of this area as the [[Fort Monroe National Monument]] in 2011.<ref name="inquirer20190822">{{cite news |last=Russ |first=Valerie |date=2019-08-22 |title=What you thought you knew about the beginnings of U.S. slavery may need an update |url=https://www.inquirer.com/news/1619-slavery-anniversary-african-landing-myths-events-20190822.html |work=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |access-date=2021-11-26}}</ref>

During the [[Atlantic slave trade]], starting in the 15th16th century, Portuguese slave traders brought large numbers of African people across the Atlantic to work in their [[Portuguese colonization of the Americas|colonies in the Americas]], such as [[Colonial Brazil|Brazil]]. An estimated 4.9 million people from Africa were brought to Brazil during the period from 1501 to 1866.<ref>{{cite web|title=VERGONHA AINDA MAIOR: Novas informações disponíveis em um enorme banco de dados mostram que a escravidão no Brasil foi muito pior do que se sabia antes (|url=http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/ricardo-setti/tema-livre/vergonha-ainda-maior-novas-informacoes-disponiveis-em-um-enorme-banco-de-dados-mostram-que-a-escravidao-no-brasil-foi-muito-pior-do-que-se-sabia-antes/|website=Veja|access-date=16 March 2015|language=pt|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150313000755/http://veja.abril.com.br/blog/ricardo-setti/tema-livre/vergonha-ainda-maior-novas-informacoes-disponiveis-em-um-enorme-banco-de-dados-mostram-que-a-escravidao-no-brasil-foi-muito-pior-do-que-se-sabia-antes/|archive-date=13 March 2015}}</ref> Thousands of people were captured by [[Slavery in Angola|Portuguese slave traders and their African allies]] such as the [[Imbangala]], in invasions of the [[Kingdom of Ndongo]] (part of modern Angola) under Governor [[Luís Mendes de Vasconcellos]].<ref>Murphy, Ric (2020-08-31). ''Arrival of the first Africans in Virginia''. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press. {{ISBN|978-1-4671-4598-5}} {{OCLC|1139767112}}, p.59, 88-89.</ref> These captives were taken to port and often sent to other parts of the [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]] and [[Portuguese Empire]]s, which were brought together in that time by the [[Iberian Union]].<ref name=":0" /> Those taken captive from Angola may have belonged to the [[Ambundu]] ethnic group,<ref>Murphy, Ric (2020-08-31). ''Arrival of the first Africans in Virginia''. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press. {{ISBN|978-1-4671-4598-5}} {{OCLC|1139767112}}, p. 23, 41.</ref><ref name=":1" /> an interpretation used at the [[Jamestown Settlement]] Galleries.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Jamestown Settlement Galleries|url=https://www.historyisfun.org/exhibitions/collections-and-exhibitions/jamestown-settlement-galleries/|access-date=2021-05-31|website=History Is Fun|language=english}}</ref>

In 1619, the Portuguese [[fluyt]] ''San Juan Bautista'' took a large group through the [[Middle Passage]] from [[Luanda]] in Angola to the bay of [[Veracruz (city)|Veracruz]] in Mexico. Of the 350 total on the [[slave ship]], about 143 died in the voyage, and 24 children were sold during a stop at the [[Colony of Santiago]] in Jamaica, with 123 enslaved people eventually being taken to [[Veracruz]], in addition to the smaller group of 20-30 taken by the privateers,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://hampton.gov/DocumentCenter/View/24075/1619-Virginias-First-Africans|title=1619: Virginia's First Africans|last=Austin|first=Beth|date=August 2019|website=Hampton History Museum|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> or perhaps double that amount.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|date=2019-03-01|title=New Light On Virginia's First Documented Africans|url=https://www.historyisfun.org/blog/new-light-on-virginias-first-documented-africans/|access-date=2021-05-31|website=History Is Fun|language=english}}</ref>

The primary source document for the ''White Lion''<nowiki/>'s arrival is as follows:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://glc.yale.edu/first-africans-virginia-1619|title=The First Africans to Virginia—1619 {{!}} The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition|website=glc.yale.edu|date=9 April 2015|access-date=2019-10-16}}</ref>

|text=About the latter end of August, a Dutch man of Warr of the burden of a 160 tunes arriued at Point-Comfort, the Comandor name Capt Jope, his Pilott for the West Indies one Mr Marmaduke an Englishman. They mett wth the Trer in the West Indyes, and determyned to hold consort shipp hetherward, but in their passage lost one the other. He brought not any thing but 20. and odd Negroes, wth the [[George Yeardley|Governor]] and Cape Marchant bought for vietualle (whereof he was in greate need as he p’tendedp'tended) at the best and easyest rate they could. He hadd a largge and ample Comyssion from his Excellency to range and to take purchase in the West Indyes.

The 1940 [[American Negro Exposition]] included a historical diorama with a similar theme, and was restored in the 21st century.<ref>{{Citecite web |last1=Manser |first1=Ann |title=Conserving Cultural Heritage: Visiting students work to preserve historical diorama |url=https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/june/conserving-cultural-heritage/ |urlwebsite=https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2017/june/conserving-cultural-heritage/ |publisher=University of Delaware |access-date=2020-09-09|website=udel.eduOctober 16, 2022 |language=en |date=June 29, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-08-05|title=The Landing of Slaves in Virginia, 1619|url=https://amandakasman.atavist.com/the-landing-of-slaves-at-jamestown-virginia-1619|access-date=2020-09-09|website=Atavist|language=en}}</ref> It is part of the collection of the [[Tuskeegee University#Campus|Legacy Museum of Tuskegee University]].

[[Category:ColonialColony of Virginia]]