The First Enslaved Africans Arrive at Point Comfort
"20 and odd" people, sold for food, at the start of two and a half centuries of American slavery
Quick facts
- Date
- Late August 1619 (now dated to about August 25)
- Ship
- The White Lion, an English privateer under Dutch authority
- Number
- "20 and odd" Africans
- Place
- Point Comfort, Virginia (now Fort Monroe National Monument)
What happened
In late August 1619, an English privateer ship called the White Lion, sailing under Dutch authority, reached Point Comfort in Virginia carrying Africans it had seized from a Spanish slave ship. The colonists recorded the arrival of what they called "20 and odd" Africans, purchased by the colony's governor and merchant in exchange for provisions. These men and women, taken from west central Africa, were among the first Africans in English-occupied North America. Point Comfort is now part of Fort Monroe National Monument in Hampton, Virginia. Their arrival did not create slavery overnight as a fully formed legal system, but it marked the beginning of a practice that Virginia and other colonies would harden into hereditary racial slavery over the following decades.
Why it matters
This is the documented beginning of African slavery in the territory that became the United States, a system that would grow to hold four million people by 1861 and stand at the center of the nation's deepest conflict. The 1619 landing has become a reference point for how far back slavery reaches in American history, predating the Mayflower and nearly every other founding story by a year.
How we know
The arrival is recorded in a 1619 letter by the colonist John Rolfe describing the "20 and odd" Africans, and modern historians have traced the White Lion's voyage and the captives' origins through Spanish, English, and Virginia colonial records.
Sources
- National Park Service, African American Heritage. 400 Years of African American History · Primary source (author-declared)nps.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- City of Hampton, Virginia. 1619: First African Landing · Reputable sourcehampton.gov · The domain "hampton.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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Related timelines
- The Atlantic Slave Trade → · The White Lion's captives were seized from a Spanish slaver crossing the Middle Passage; see the Atlantic Slave Trade timeline for the wider forced migration of enslaved Africans.