National Geographic History - July 2019

78 JULY/AUGUST 2019

experiences represent those of more than 12.5

million other captives, who were taken from Af-

rica to be sold in the Americas during the nearly

four centuries of the transatlantic slave trade.

Their story marks an important historical tran-

sition, as the North American colonies began to

turn away from indentured servitude and instead

rely on chattel slavery.

Slavery in Africa

On the west coast of central Africa in the 1600s,

the Portuguese were in the midst of a war with

Ndongo, a powerful west African kingdom lo-

cated between the Lukala and Kwanza rivers,

in present-day Angola. The people of Ndongo

I

n late August 1619, “20 and odd” captive Af-

ricans first touched the soil at Point Com-

fort, part of England’s new colony in Virginia.

These men and women had been stolen from

their homes in Africa, forced to board a ship,

and sailed for months into the unknown. The

first Africans in an English colony, their arrival

is considered by many historians to be the be-

ginning of a 400-year story filled with tragedy,

endurance, survival, and a legacy of resilience,

inequality, and oppression.

These first Africans in Virginia were not the

first Africans in North America, but they were

a significant part of the ever changing Atlantic

world during the colonial era. Their travels and

KING’S RIVER

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 (above).

VIRGINIA’S

BEGINNINGS

I

N 1619 THE ENGLISH were beginning to

see success in their early colonization

attempts in North America. Thirteen

years earlier, in December 1606, 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 arrived on the

shores of the James River, in an area ruled

by the Powhatan. They were later joined

by more settlers, including women, and

were able to establish Jamestown as the

first successful English settlement in the

Americas. By 1619, Virginia had become

an established colony; in July it held the

first gathering of the General Assembly,

marking the formality of law in the young

colony, and English settlements began to

expand inland.

FROM

AFRICA TO

AMERICA

Portugal connects with the

Kingdom of Kongo. The two

nations establish diplomatic,

religious, and commercial ties

that will form the basis of the

transatlantic slave trade.

Spain founds its first “New

World” colonies. Many

European settlements

will follow in the coming

decades, and the demand

for labor will increase.

The Spanish and

Portuguese bring enslaved

Africans to work in the

Americas. Santo Domingo

becomes the New World’s

first international slave port.

1483 1490s 1501-1505

NG IMAGE COLLECTION