In what year did the first African slaves arrive in Virginia?

Answer 1

In May of 1619 the Sao Joao Bautista started loading 350 Africans who had been captured from the Ndongo region of Angola. Most of these Africans had accepted Christianity and had been given Christian names like Mary, Isabella, Anthony, Antonio, Pedro, John, Katherine, Angela etc. They were loaded into the belly of the ship. They left the port city Luanda in late May headed for Vera Cruz Mexico where the Africans would be come slaves for life in the silver mines. By the end of June, one month into the voyage over 100 Africans had already died and the ship was still 1000 miles from Vera Cruz. The Capt. was fearful he might lose his entire cargo of Africans so he stopped in Jamaica and traded 24 African boys for medicine and supplies. They stayed there until the Africans were well enough to travel.

At the same time the ship Treasurer was sent from Jamestown on a trip to pirate Spanish or Portuguese ships of their silver and gold cargo. They met up with the Dutch ship White Lion, a ship from Holland carrying Dutch papers to also pirate Spanish and Portuguese ships. They decided to team up and attack ships as a team. They headed to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Sao Joao Bautista with the Africans left Jamaica in early July headed to Vera Cruz which was still over 500 miles away. As they entered the Gulf of Mexico they were attacked by the Treasurer and the White Lion. The Bautista was heavily damaged and had to surrender. Sailors from the White Lion boarded the Bautista looking for gold and silver. When they opened the cargo hole all they saw were these black faces staring back at them. They were not equipped to take on human cargo because they did not have room or food. This was new experienced. They had never attacked a ship carrying Africans. So they split up 60 or more of the healthiest Africans with the Treasurer and headed back to Virginia. The Treasurer was also heavily damaged in the attack and was taking on water which slowed it down. When the White Lion reached Bermuda it was running out of supplies again. So it stopped at Bermuda and traded 14 Africans for supplies. It then headed to Virginia. By all accounts the White Lion had never been to Virginia. The White Lion entered the Chesapeake Bay in the latter end of August 1619 and pulled into Point Comfort, today's Fort Monroe. John Rolfe witnessed the 20 and odd Africans come ashore. Subsequent documentation shows that 25 Africans came ashore. Because the settlers did not have anything to trade, all 25 Africans were traded for only a chest of Indian Maize.