Arrival of the First Africans in Virginia by Ric Murphy

Author:Ric Murphy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2020-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

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THE FIRST RECORDED AFRICANS

When the English first arrived in 1607 and 1620 in Jamestown and Plymouth Bay, respectively, they were well documented. From the time they left England to the time they disembarked, their names were recorded on ship manifests, and they were found in most of the muster/census records. Conversely, when the Angolans left Africa until the time they arrived in English North America on board the San Juan Bautista, they were destined to be nameless individuals, intended as nothing more than chattel property on the massive agricultural farms of New Spain or Brazil.

When the Angolans came to Virginia, they could not be found in a ship’s manifest or the first muster taken within the colony. When they were traded for victuals and supplies at Point Comfort, and then distributed throughout the colony, they temporarily disappeared into obscurity. For some, their African birth names have now been lost to history.

However, the Angolans began to reappear in the colony in the most unusual ways: through the ledgers of the headright system, through subsequent census records and from the legal documents left behind by various county courthouses. It is from these colonial records, as well as the records of the Virginia Company in England, that we can begin the long and arduous journey of unmasking and preserving their identities and legacies for generations to come.

These voluminous records of the Africans once held on board the San Juan Bautista, then transferred to the White Lion and the Treasurer, reveal the true history and identities of these remarkable Angolans and not the false narrative imposed on them.

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