First Enslaved Africans Arrive in Virginia

What Happened?

On or about August 20, 1619, ‘20 and odd’ Africans kidnapped from the kingdoms of Ndongo and Kongo in present-day Angola arrived in Virginia. Captured by Portuguese forces, they were forced to march to the port of Luanda, where they were loaded aboard the San Juan Bautista. Of the 350 captives on board, about 150 died during the brutal Middle Passage. The ship was intercepted near Veracruz by two English privateers, the White Lion and the Treasurer, which seized dozens of captives.

The White Lion brought some of the survivors to Point Comfort, Virginia, trading them for food with English colonists. While official records described them as ‘servants,’ the reality was forced bondage. Among them were Antonio and Isabella, who later had a son, William, the first recorded African child born in English America.

Virginia did not yet have formal slavery laws in 1619, but within a few decades, racial slavery became codified. A 1640 court case sentenced John Punch, an African man, to lifetime slavery, marking the legal shift toward race-based servitude. By 1662, Virginia declared that children inherited the enslaved status of their mothers, entrenching slavery as a hereditary system.

The arrival of Africans in Virginia was part of the broader transatlantic slave trade, which uprooted more than 12.5 million Africans over three centuries. Though fewer enslaved Africans were brought to mainland North America than to the Caribbean or Brazil, their labor and suffering profoundly shaped American society, economy, and culture.

Slavery would become the backbone of the colonial economy, fueling the rise of tobacco and cotton plantations. By the time of the Civil War, nearly four million people were enslaved in the United States. Though legally abolished in 1865, the legacy of slavery continues to shape the nation, from systemic racism to economic inequality. The events of 1619 stand as a stark reminder of America’s foundations and its unfinished struggle for justice.

Why It Matters

The arrival of enslaved Africans in Virginia in 1619 is often called America’s ‘original sin.’ It marks the beginning of a system that exploited human lives for profit and laid the foundations of racial inequality that persist to this day. Understanding this moment is not about assigning distant blame—it is about acknowledging how deeply slavery is woven into America’s story. To face the present honestly, we must remember the lives stolen, the families broken, and the systems built on their backs. Only then can we begin to imagine—and create—a future not defined by injustice, but by equity and dignity for all.