Posted on 09/09/2019 12:15:40 PM PDT by re_tail20
The arrival of the first captives to the Jamestown Colony, in 1619, is often seen as the beginning of slavery in Americabut enslaved Africans arrived in North America as early as the 1500s.
In late August 1619, the White Lion, an English privateer commanded by John Jope, sailed into Point Comfort and dropped anchor in the James River. Virginia colonist John Rolfe documented the arrival of the ship and 20 and odd Africans on board. His journal entry is immortalized in textbooks, with 1619 often used as a reference point for teaching the origins of slavery in America. But the history, it seems, is far more complicated than a single date.
It is believed the first Africans brought to the colony of Virginia, 400 years ago this month, were Kimbundu-speaking peoples from the kingdom of Ndongo, located in part of present-day Angola. Slave traders forced the captives to march several hundred miles to the coast to board the San Juan Bautista, one of at least 36 transatlantic Portuguese and Spanish slave ships.
The ship embarked with about 350 Africans on board, but hunger and disease took a swift toll. En route, about 150 captives died. Then, when the San Juan Bautista approached what is now Veracruz, Mexico in the summer of 1619, it encountered two ships, the White Lion and another English privateer, the Treasurer. The crews stormed the vulnerable slave ship and seized 50 to 60 of the remaining Africans. After, the pair sailed for Virginia.
As noted by Rolfe, when the White Lion arrived in what is now present-day Hampton, Virginia, the Africans were offloaded and bought for victuals. Governor Sir George Yeardley and head merchant Abraham Piersey acquired the majority of the captives, most of whom were kept in Jamestown, Americas first permanent English settlement.
The arrival...
(Excerpt) Read more at history.com ...
Slavery is common in the Congo today.
According to Slavery and Native Americans in British North America and the United States: 1600 to 1865, by Tony Seybert, Most Native American tribal groups practiced some form of slavery before the European introduction of African slavery into North America.
The paper itself
Slavery and Native Americans in British North America and the United States: 1600 to 1865 by Tony Seybert
https://mmslibrary.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/slavery-and-native-americans-in-british-north-america-and-the-united-states.pdf
You tell me
I’m just saying that when one group conquered another, very often the loser ended up enslaved.
Not at all, but to say slavery starts with and was the worst in The USA just ignores history. In Georgia, you’re required to take African american history as part of the college curriculum. My African american teacher of African american history pointed that fact out in class. He also pointed out that peonage, serfdom, and debt bondage were just slavery in another form. He also mentioned, back in the 80’s, that if you supported modern slavery, then buy goods from China. Also that America did fight a war and changed it’s constitution to outlaw slavery, and that Saudi Arabia didn’t outlaw slavery until 1962. He also believed and taught that America’s Declaration of Independence meant that slavery was shot in the heart in 1776 and just took a while to die.
“There were only four of them brought here then.”
So four of the approximately twenty were indentured, rather than chattel, slaves?
Never claimed we invented slavery nor were we the worst. But the discussion is slavery in the United States. Immediately lots of posts stating just about everyone in every country practiced slavery. Fine, that the American Indians, or the Brazilians had slaves is not the discussion about slavery in the United States. IMO these are feeble attempts to somehow justify the institution of slavery as it was practiced in the United States.
The text book I read said that.
“The text book I read said that.”
Thanks. I couldn’t find any good source for this in my quick online search.
bingo
No, slavery is an immoral institution. I was pointing out that the global demise of slavery began with the Declaration of Independence and that any discussion of slavery in America needs to include the facts that it was a global institution prior to the founding of the United States, and that this country was instrumental in ending it. It was the western European protestant value system that first stated that all people were equal under god. And that freedom and dignity is the natural state of humanity. So let’s cut the BS about limiting the discussion to ignore the totality of slavery in the history of mankind just to say “America Bad”.
Agree that slavery is an immoral institution.
I do not give a damn about slavery in Africa, Brazil, or Outer Mongolia. Slavery in country took 4 years of bloody warfare and an amendment to the Constitution to end. Whether Aztecs had slaves is immaterial to discussion of how the slave traditions developed in this country. As I said the vast # of posts pointing out American Indians had slaves is appears to somehow mitigate slavery as practiced by Americans.
cut the BS, the majority of slave owners in this country happened to be white European Christians.
Traditions are things that are passed on.
Are you implying that slavery exists as a tradition in this country today?
Traditions come and go. In our Navy it was traditional to use the cat for discipline and issue rum. Traditions no longer practiced today. Slavery was a tradition in this country for close to 300 years. It is not practiced in this country today.
My French/Indian ancestors did not own slaves and fought for the Confederacy. My English/welsh ancestors owned a few slaves and one of them marched with Sherman through Georgia.
Never implied that America should be guilty for the practice of slavery. When slavery existed in America it was legal, both as colonies of His Most Britannic Majesty and as The United States. It is our history. No shame, no embarrassment, just history.
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