First Africans in Virginia
FIRST AFRICANS IN VIRGINIA
The first documented Africans in Virginia arrived
here in Aug. 1619 on the White Lion, and English
privateer based in the Netherlands. Colonial
officials traded food for these "20 and odd"
Africans, who had been captured from a
Portuguese slave ship. Among present-day
Hampton's earliest African residents were Antony
and Isabella. Their son, William was the first
child of African ancestry known to have been
born in Virginia (ca. 1624). Many of the earliest
Africans were held as slaves, but some individuals
became free. A legal framework for hereditary
lifelong slavery in Virginia evolved during the 1600s.
The United States abolished slavery in 1865.
Submitted by @kerryrm and Ed Baptist.