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1619late August 1619 · Point Comfort, Hampton

First enslaved Africans arrive in English North America

Aerial view of Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort, Virginia
Photo: Unknown author. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

An English privateer, the White Lion, landed 'twenty and odd' Africans at Point Comfort in Virginia, exchanging them for food. They had been seized from a Portuguese slave ship carrying captives from Angola. Their arrival is taken as the beginning of African American history in the English colonies. Fort Monroe, later built on the site, became a refuge for people escaping slavery in 1861.

Sites

  1. Site 1: Fort Monroe National MonumentMoated fort with the 1619 arrival memorial and 'Freedom's Fortress' story.Map ↗

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