Section:GDN 1N PaGe:33 Edition Date:190815 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 14/8/2019 18:21 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 15 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •World^33
United StatesThursday 15 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •33Birth of slavery
Four centuries on,
Americans look to
where it all began
David Smith
WashingtonA
s the blue waters of
Chesapeake Bay lap
against the shore,
sunbathers lounge
in deckchairs and
children play on the
beach. Close by is a magnifi cent oak
tree, stretching high into the sky.
Over half a millennium, the
Algernoune Oak has witnessed war
and peace and the fall of empires,
but never a day like the one in
late August 1619. It was here that
the White Lion, a 160-ton English
privateer ship, landed at what was
then Point Comfort. On board were
more than 20 captives seized from
the Kingdom of Ndongo in modern
Angola. They were the fi rst enslaved
Africans in English North America –
ushering in the era of slavery in what
would become the United States.
This site, now Fort Monroe
in Hampton, southern Virginia,
will host a weekend of 400th
anniversary commemorations
on 23-25 August, culminating in
a symbolic release of butterfl ies
and a nationwide ringing of bells.
Americans of all ethnicities will
refl ect on a historical turning point
that represents pain and suff ering
but also resilience and reinvention.
Some see an opportunity for a
national reckoning and debate on
reparations. For a people robbed of
an origin story, it is also an invitation
to go in search of roots.
“Once I learned that I was from
there, it changed something in me,”
said Terry E Brown, 50, who traced
his ancestry to Cameroon and slaves
in Virginia and North Carolina.
“I have a fi re in me to just learn
about why and who I am. There’s
something deep down and spiritual
about it and I want to connect to it .”
By the early 17th century the
transatlantic slave trade – the biggest
forced migration in history – was
well under way in the Caribbean
and Latin America. In 1619 it cameto the English colony of Virginia.
The San Juan Bautista, a Spanish
ship transporting enslaved Africans,
was bound for Mexico when it was
attacked by the White Lion and
another privateer, the Treasurer, and
forced to surrender its prisoners.
The White Lion landed at Point
Comfort. John Rolfe, a colonist,
reported that its cargo was “not
anything but 20 and odd Negroes,
which the Governor and Cape
Merchant bought for victualls”.
The African captives were given
names such as Antony and Isabela by
Portuguese missionaries.
The captain of the White Lion,
John Jope, traded the captives with
Virginians for food and supplies.
They were taken into servitude in
nearby homes and plantations, their
skills as farmers and artisans critical
in the daily struggle to survive.
Slavery in North America was born.
It would be another century until
the formation of the United States.
By 1725, some 42,200 enslaved
Africans had been transported to
the Chesapeake; by 1775, the total
was 127,200. Thomas Jeff erson,
the author of the declaration of
independence, which contains the
words “all men are created equal”,
was a Virginian slave-owner and, by
1860, the US was home to about 3.9
million enslaved African Americans.
The events of 1619 are at once
both remote and immediate in
a state where white nationalists
caused deadly violence in
Charlottesville two years ago and
in a nation where their enabler
occupies the White House.
“African Americans make up
about 13% of the population and
our young black men account for
about 49% of America’s murders,”
said Brown, the fi rst black
superintendent of the Fort Monroe
national monument. “I can easily
tie it to the very beginning of this
country. It’s so easy to treat other
people like they’re less than human
if you don’t know them. I’m hoping
this 400th [anniversary] will ... raise
the awareness level.”
Built by enslaved labour, the fort
witnessed the beginning of slavery
but also the end: early in the civil
war, three slaves fl ed to Fort Monroe
and were deemed “contraband of
war”, spurring thousands to seek
sanctuary behind Union lines and
ultimately a shift in government
policy towards emancipation.
Last month, Donald Trump
travelled to nearby Jamestown to
celebrate the 400th anniversary of
the fi rst representative legislative
assembly. The US president referred
to “the beginning of a barbaric‘Once I learned that
I was from there, it
changed something
in me. I have a fi re
in me to learn about
why and who I am’Terry E Brown
Supt, Fort Monroetrade in human lives”, but there
are no plans for him to attend the
commemoration at Fort Monroe.
“He’s not welcome because of
everything we’re commemorating –
the arrival of slavery,” said Gaylene
Kanoyton, of the Hampton branch
of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People.
“He’s for white supremacy, he’s for
nationalism, he’s for everything that
we are against .”
Last month, the congressman
James Clyburn was part of a
delegation to Ghana to mark the
anniversary. He says the US has still
not confronted the issue of slavery.
“It’s an issue that’s been avoided in
this country as much as possible.
“We tend to feel that if we ignore
it, pretend it didn’t happen, then it
didn’t happen – or if we don’t need to
do anything with it then we won’t.” Terry E Brown
at Fort Monroe ,
a monument to
the beginnings
of slavery in the
US but also to the
end – three slaves
fl ed there during
the civil war and
policy shifted to
emancipation
PHOTOGRAPHS:
EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/
THE GUARDIAN▼ A statue to
commemorate
Confederate
soldiers stands in
the cemetery at
St John’s church
in Hampton,
where they were
buried (below
left), while a sign
(below) at the
fort marks the
origins of slavery
in the US▲ Terry Brown by the Algernoune oak. He hopes the commemorations will raise
awareness of the links between slavery and the position of black Americans nowРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS