400 years ago, enslaved Africans first arrived in Virginia

On August 20, 1619, the first known African Americans in English North America (approx. 20) landed at Point Comfort (Fort Monroe), Virginia. They were then sold or traded into servitude. From the article:

"400 years ago, enslaved Africans first arrived in Virginia

Rosemary P. Wardley, NG Staff; Scott Elder. Art: Dave Stevenson

The White Lion, commanded by Cornish man John Jope, and the Treasurer, owned by Sir Robert Rich, the Earl of Warwick, and led by Captain Daniel Elfrith, were assigned the duty of intercepting and seizing Spanish goods in the Atlantic. The English wanted these privateers to slow down Spanish settlement and empowered them to attack Spanish ships. This particular encounter, in the bay of Campeche, left all three ships damaged, and the English pirates stole approximately 50 Africans as part of their overall booty.

After the battle, the San Juan Bautista continued to Veracruz, where 147 surviving enslaved Africans would be sold. The Treasurer and White Lion left the battle and sailed toward the eastern Caribbean. The 50 Angolans on board the two ships had lived through the Middle Passage from Luanda to the Gulf of Mexico. They had witnessed death and endured despair and violence, and had survived it all—including an attack by pirates.

Arrival in Virginia
The English pirates split the captive Africans into two groups between their ships. Both vessels sailed toward the British Colony of Virginia, which was established in 1607. The White Lion arrived first, landing at Point Comfort, in present-day Hampton, Virginia. English colonist John Rolfe recorded the event:

...a Dutchman of Warr of the burden of a 160 tunnes arrived at Point Comfort, the Commandors name Capt. Jope. He brought not any thing but 20. And odd Negroes, w[hich] the Governo[r] and Cape Merchant bought for victuals.

His clinical summation is the only documentation of the event and falls short of capturing any details of that day in late August 1619 as “20 and odd” Africans placed their feet on the soil of new continent. As they stood together as the first Africans in British North America, no one recorded their reactions or opinions about leaving their homes in Angola. Their perspective was lost in time.

The second ship, the Treasurer, arrived a few days later for a quick trade at nearby Kicotan (now Hampton), Virginia, but quickly departed for Bermuda. They traded their remaining goods and sold the rest of the Africans upon their arrival. The English colonies were expanding and the captives supplied them with an instant and distinguishable work force. The Spanish and Portuguese capture and enslavement of Africans as laborers in the Atlantic world was common practice by the time Jamestown was established, and the British followed suit. By the end of the 17th century, the colonies’ reliance on indentured servants had shifted toward that of enslaved African people. (See also: Jamestown colonists resorted to cannibalism.)

Virginia's Beginnings
England had made several unsuccessful attempts to start a colony in North America before founding Jamestown in 1607 along the banks of the river they named after King James I.

By 1619 the English were having realizing success in North America. Thirteen years earlier, the London-based Virginia Company had sent three ships, captained by Christopher Newport, to colonize the eastern coast of North America. On May 14, 1607, he and his all-male passengers landed near the James River, in an area ruled by the Powhatan. More settlers, including women, followed, and Jamestown became the first successful English settlement in the Americas. In July 1619, Virginia held the first gathering of the General Assembly, marking the formality of law in the young colony.

By March 1620, 32 Africans were documented living in Virginia; 15 men and 17 women. The first American-born African likely was either at Flowerdew Hundred Plantation or at Kicotan, both nearby settlements on the James River. In 1624, this small African population had shrunk to only 21, most likely from death due to illness, the 1622 Powhatan uprising, or because some were sold back into the Atlantic trade.

There is no record stating the official legal status of these first Africans in Virginia. There was already an established racial caste in the Portuguese and Spanish colonies, and it is fair to presume the English followed this custom. They most likely saw these Africans as something other than indentured servants, a status common for their poor white counterparts.

Early Virginia census records show that many Africans were never listed by name, just their “race,” and cited their appearance as starkly different from that of the colonists. This distinction marks the beginnings of a racial caste, formalized into Virginia law by the early 1650s, the enslaved status of African women was written into Virginia law as their children automatically inherited their status and were enslaved at birth, regardless of the father’s identity. This set up slavery as a permanent, hereditary condition. A series of laws, called slave codes, followed, each one cementing racism firmly in the DNA of the United States.

Culture clues
Historians know few details about the first “20 and odd” Africans in Virginia. It is assumed that they spoke forms of the Bantu language, either Kikongo, from the Kongo Kingdom, or Kimbundu, from the Ngongo empire. Their documented names are of Spanish origin and most likely were assigned to them during their time on the San Juan Bautista. A few of them, and some of those who followed shortly after in the early 1620s, left clues to their lives in Virginia’s courts and records. In 1624, court records show the testimony of “John Phillips” and the census lists “Anthony” and “Isabella” as living in Elizabeth City, and “Angelo (Angela)” at Jamestown. It is this brevity that keeps the details of their lives absent from most written records and hinders current understanding of their experiences.

Looking for Angela
Cowrie shells were valuable in many West African cultures and used as currency. When found at archaeological sites in the “New World,” they indicate an African presence.

A woman named Angela was one of the captured Angolans who arrived in Virginia on the Treasurer in 1619. She was listed as “Angelo” in the 1624 census, living in Lieutenant William Pierce’s home in Jamestown, along with three white indentured servants. Although her name sounds masculine, she is listed as a woman and referred to as both Angelo and Angela. She was born in Angola around 1600, and her name was likely changed by her enslavers. In 2017, archaeologists at Jamestown found at her site a cowrie shell, which likely held special signigicance to her. In West and central Africa, cowrie shells were used as currency, adornment, and in religious practices.

Some of the English colonists might have failed to see the ethnic and religious diversity among their captives. But many slavers sought out particular ethnic groups for their skills. In addition to farming, these kingdoms were known for their iron work, masonry, glassmaking, weaving, and mining—all skills needed in the development of the colonies. The Kongo were well-known metal workers and brought with them unmatched skill sets.

Angola was home to the Kongo Kingdom, which converted to Catholicism in the 15th century, but inhabitants still retained many of their own religious practices. Traditional rituals and beliefs, such as ancestor worship, were intermixed with Catholic rites. Archaeologists working at colonial sites have found traces of it in the material culture; the Kongo cosmogram, a cross-like mark, often with a circle encompassing it, can be found carved into objects such as pipes and bowls and into walls and metal throughout the African diaspora. This symbol, often mistaken for a cross, had a double meaning; it could pass as Christian while also performing essential ritual purposes. This symbol was used to pray to and conjure the African ancestors for protection.

Traces of the Past
These clay pipe fragments found in Virginia date to the 17th century and bear designs that reflect the influence of West African culture. Stratford Plantation, Virginia.
Photography by Amy Connolly/Stratford Hall Plantation
Handmade pipes, like the ones excavated at the Cliffs Plantation at Stratford Hall (above), date to the 1650s and were handmade by the enslaved Africans who lived there. The designs etched in the clay are specific to their ancestral cultures. Similar designs are found carved into objects throughout the African diaspora, which can yield clues about the dispersions of African populations in the early colonies. These pipes may also hold the DNA of the people who used them. In 2019, scholars were able to collect DNA from a 19th-century clay pipe found in Maryland and trace it back to modern-day Sierra Leone, most likely to the Mende people in West Africa.

It is through the markings carved into pipes and other material objects, mostly found through archaeological investigations, that historians are given a glimpse into the Africans’ personal lives. Their religion, ethnicity, and culture survived the Middle Passage and took hold in the colonies. The first Africans in Virginia were followed by more than 400,000 people captured and brought directly from West and central African to the North American slave ports, from New England to New Orleans. Written records are mostly limited to names, sex, and monetary value, and occasionally occupation; more detailed descriptions typically are found only in advertisements about runaway slaves. This leaves historians with a limited amount of information, and as such, a heavy reliance on archaeological data and oral tradition. (See also: Last American slave ship is discovered in Alabama.)

Dark legacy
A 1790 engraving showing the cramped, inhuman stowage arrangements on the British slave ship Brookes.
Photograph by Album
While slavery existed for millennia in other cultures around the world before 1619, it transformed significantly in the Americas. Traditional African slavery was vastly different from what developed in the colonies. In African kingdoms, slavery was not permanent nor was it inherited. Children of slaves were not automatically enslaved, and they could be socially and politically mobile. (See also: Nat Turner, an American rebel's complicated legacy.)

In the “New World,” slavery transformed. It was permanent and hereditary. The enslaved had few or no civil rights. They could be bought and sold at their owners’ discretion. The social construct of race became tightly tethered to legal status, causing problems that ripple down to the present day.

As the 400th anniversary of the 1619 arrival approached, more people actively tried to trace their roots back to their African ancestors’ arrival in the colonies. Some are fortunate, like members of the William Tucker 1624 Society. Many members can trace their lineage back to William Tucker, believed to be the first African American child born in Virginia. Their surname was recorded centuries ago, and they have remained connected to this distinct family line.

By 1624, two of the 1619 arrivals, “Anthony” and “Isabella,” were parents of “William,” the first documented African-American born in Virginia. Their son took the last name Tucker, as was commonplace, from his enslaver. Many of their descendants remained in the Tidewater region of Virginia. Some are buried in the family cemetery in Hampton, Virginia, which is cared for by the William Tucker 1624 Society.
Photograph by Amy Briggs
Unfortunately, the Tuckers are the exception, as most African Americans can only trace their ancestors back to the late 19th century, following emancipation, when African Americans were free to record their own full legal names. Scientific advances in genetics have also given people new tools to find their ancestors via DNA, but creating a full family tree remains unlikely. Few family histories will ever be complete, yet another legacy of the inhumane treatment of enslaved Africans and their descendants. (See also: Their ancestors survived slavery. Can their descendants save the town they built?)

Long History
Shirley Plantation, one of the oldest Virginia plantations, was established in 1613 on the banks of the James, upriver from Point Comfort. The first enslaved Africans were documented there in 1622, the last in 1865.
Photograph by PAT & CHUCK BLACKLEY/ALAMY
Looking back to 1619, one realizes it is time to recognize how racist ideology fed the colonization of the Americas and the systematic enslavement and oppression of both Native Americans and captive Africans. Looking forward, one must also see how necessary it is for humanity to try to tell the full story of the millions of Africans who were stolen away.

Dr. Kelley Fanto Deetz is a historian of the African diaspora and director of programming, education, and visitor engagement at Stratford Hall in Stratford, Virginia."