One of the most harrowing episodes in American history was set into motion on August 20th, 1619, when "twenty and odd" enslaved individuals arrived on the shores of British America. These captives, who had been taken from what is now modern-day Angola, were brought to Old Point Comfort in Virginia — a moment widely regarded as the beginning of slavery in the British Colonies in North America.
Facts:
- English colonist John Rolfe used the phrase "twenty and odd" in his account of the first enslaved people to reach Virginia. The expression refers to an unspecified number somewhere between 20 and 30.
- Hailing from modern-day Angola, the enslaved people were brought across the ocean aboard the White Lion, a vessel under the command of Captain Jope.
- Over the span of centuries — from 1501 to 1866 — approximately 5 million Africans were torn from their homelands and sold into enslavement in British America.
- The then-governor of Virginia purchased these first enslaved Africans upon their arrival.
- Working alongside African counterparts from the Kingdom of Ndongo, the Portuguese carried out the kidnapping of these first enslaved Africans.
- Modern-day Angola encompasses the territory that was once the Kingdom of Ndongo.
- The brutal sea crossing from Africa to the American continent claimed the lives of over 140 enslaved people, some of whom perished by jumping overboard.