AFRICAN DIASPORA ACROSS PALISADES & TIME
Uncover Your Family's Story
From Slavery to Today
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WHY?
To connect the dots and discover the missing pieces of the African diaspora in the United States of America (the descendants of those who were enslaved and free people of color during the time of and beyond the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Our Story
How it started (here)...
In 1619, the first recorded Africans arrived in the English colonies that would become the United States. They were brought to Point Comfort (in present-day Virginia) aboard an English privateer ship called the White Lion. The Africans had originally been captured in West Central Africa, likely in the region of present-day Angola, by Portuguese slave traders. They were then seized from a Portuguese slave ship by English privateers and transported to the colony of Virginia.
Historical records, including a letter written by colonist John Rolfe, describe “20 and odd” Africans arriving in late August 1619. They were traded for supplies and provisions.
Their legal status at the time is debated by historians. Some were likely treated similarly to indentured servants at first, but over the following decades, colonial laws hardened into a system of race-based, hereditary slavery. The arrival of these Africans in 1619 is widely recognized as a symbolic beginning of African slavery in what became the United States and marks a foundational moment in American history.
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