Today in our History – August 20, 1619 – African slaves arrived in Virginia

GM – LIF – Today’s American Champion event was at the very least, a landmark in the long history of slavery in European colonies, and the beginning stages of what would become the institution of slavery in America. The New York Times last year announced a special project devoted to its indelible mark on American society, calling it “The 1619 Project”.

Today in our History – August 20, 1619 – African slaves arrived in Virginia.

The human cargo that arrived in Virginia in 1619 had come from the port city of Luanda, now the capital of present-day Angola. Back then, it was a Portuguese colony, and most of the enslaved are believed to have been captured during an ongoing war between Portugal and the kingdom of Ndongo, as John Thornton wrote in the The William and Mary Quarterly in 1998. Between 1618 and 1620, about 50,000 enslaved people — many of whom had been prisoners of war — were exported from Angola. An estimated 350 of these captives were loaded onto a Portuguese slave ship called the S?o Jo?o Bautista (more commonly known as the San Juan Batista).

Historians do not know much about the men and women who were sold to Yeardley and Piersey, or what happened to them, though some of their names have been revealed. Anthony and Isabella (sometimes spelled “Isabela”) stayed in present-day Hampton, Va., in an area then known as Elizabeth Cittie. They worked for William Tucker, a Virginia Company of London stockholder, and had a son also named William Tucker. Another woman who came off the Treasurer is identified as Angelo, and a 1625 census places her in William Pierce’s house in an area outside the James Fort city called New Towne.

The people who came in August 20, 1619 have been described as “the first Africans to set foot on the North American continent,” but that is incorrect.

It has been pointed out, Juan Garrido became the first documented black person to arrive in what would become the U.S. when he accompanied Juan Ponce de León in search of the Fountain of Youth in 1513, and they ended up in present-day Florida, around St. Augustine.

Nor is it the case that those who arrived in 1619 were the first enslaved people in what would become the United States. In 1565, for example, the Spanish brought enslaved Africans to present-day St. Augustine, Fla., the first European settlement in what’s now the continental U.S. In 1526, a Spanish expedition to present-day South Carolina was thwarted when the enslaved Africans aboard resisted.

In addition, Indigenous people — notably those of the 30-odd tribal communities led by Pocahontas’s father Powhatan — lived in the area that became Virginia long before Europeans or Africans got there. The English settlers enslaved indigenous people around the time of 1619, and some colonists later owned both American Indian and African slaves, says Ashley Atkins Spivey, an anthropologist and member of Pamunkey, the Powhatan chief’s tribe.

With that said, something did change in 1619. Because of the central role of the English colonies in American history, the introduction of the transatlantic slave trade to Virginia is likewise central to this ugly and inescapable part of that story. In addition, the type of race-based chattel slavery system that solidified in the centuries that followed was its own unique American tragedy.

Today, Fort Monroe stands where the White Lion landed. The proclamation by President Barack Obama in 2011 that made the fort a national monument reads, “The first enslaved Africans in England’s colonies in America were brought to this peninsula on a ship flying the Dutch flag in 1619, beginning a long ignoble period of slavery in the colonies and, later, this Nation.” That proclamation validated research by Calvin Pearson, who runs a local history effort called Project 1619.

But despite the official recognition, debate remains over this history — down to the words best to use to describe it.

There are also some who argue the first Africans in Virginia should be classified as indentured servants, as laws on lifetime slavery — including the law that said children of enslaved mothers are slaves — didn’t start to appear until the late 17th century and early 18th century. Those on this side of the argument say the word “slave” wasn’t used at the time, citing a 1620s census that uses the word “servants.”

Just as there were free black populations in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, there were some free black people in Virginia before the laws codified race-based slavery in the late 17th century; for example, Anthony Johnson owned land in the 1650s. Earlier this year, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam referred to the long history of racism in the U.S. as dating back 400 years to “the first indentured servants from Africa” landing at Point Comfort in an interview with CBS This Morning. But co-host Gayle King quickly added that their servitude is “also known as slavery,” and many observers agreed that “indentured servant” was in this case merely a euphemism for slavery.

A documented letter says the people were traded for food, indicating they were seen as property, and research suggests most of them were kidnapped, meaning they didn’t come to America willingly. On top of that, the transatlantic slave trade had been going on for about a century by August 1619.

Some scholars also advocate reframing the story of 1619 so the emphasis is less on the trade that happened in Virginia and more on the horrifying voyage to get there — and what came after.

As a, co-chair of the Hampton 2019 Commemorative Commission tells it Our children are not learning the human tragedy of enslavement. They’re only learning that they were brought here to work for other people. They’re not taught the human tragedy of being split up from the people you survived a harrowing journey with when you’re sold for food because you’re not seen as people. A woman named Angelo, who was purchased and worked in Pierce’s house, alone, no family. What was her experience like?

So at the heart of the 401th anniversary being marked this week is a story of endurance, and of how people brought from Africa against their wills played an integral role in the American story. Their contributions ranged from vocabulary to agriculture to cuisine, including staples like rice that were a key part of the English colonies’ success.

They probably also brought some Christian practices that they learned from the Portuguese Catholic missionaries in Africa. As the Internet has helped African Americans try to trace their roots back to the 17th century, interest in these aspects of the story is growing. Research more about this American tragedy and share it with your babies. Make it a champion day!