On August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrive in the British colony of Virginia and are then bought by English colonists. The arrival of enslaved Africans in the New World marks a beginning of two and a half centuries of slavery in North America.

Founded at Jamestown in 1607, the Virginia Colony was home to about 700 people by 1619. The first enslaved Africans to arrive in Virginia disembarked at Point Comfort, in what is today known as Fort Monroe. Most of their names, as well as the exact number who remained at Point Comfort, have been lost to history, but much is known about their journey. 

They were originally kidnapped by Portuguese colonial forces, who sent captured members of the native Kongo and Ndongo kingdoms on a forced march to the port of Luanda, the capital of modern-day Angola. From there, they were ordered on the ship San Juan Bautista, which set sail for Veracruz in the colony of New Spain. As was quite common, about 150 of the 350 captives aboard the ship died during the crossing. Then, as it approached its destination, the ship was attacked by two privateer ships, the White Lion and the Treasurer. Crews from the two ships kidnapped up to 60 of the Bautista’s enslaved people. It was the White Lion which docked at Virginia Colony’s Point Comfort and traded some of the prisoners for food on August 20, 1619.

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READ MORE: The Last American Slave Ship

Citation Information

Article Title

First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, setting the stage for slavery in North America

AuthorHistory.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-slave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony

Access Date

August 20, 2022

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

August 16, 2022

Original Published Date

August 13, 2019

Simmering racial tensions and economic frustrations boil over in New York City on the night of August 1, 1943, culminating in what is now known as the Harlem Riot of 1943. During an altercation in the lobby of the Braddock Hotel, a white police officer shoots a Black soldier, Robert Bandy, triggering a massive uprising.

Overwhelmingly white before the Great Migration, Harlem was 89 percent Black by the time the United States entered World War II. Despite the cultural innovations that accompanied these changes, known as the Harlem Renaissance, the neighborhood’s businesses remained mostly white-owned, and landlords and business owners continued to discriminate against Black residents. World War II brought not only conscription but also a higher cost of living, putting even more strain on a Black community whose economy was still controlled almost entirely by whites

In a major decision on July 9, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that an 1833 treaty still applies to the Muscogee Nation, also known as the Creek. In McGirt v. Oklahoma, the court holds 5-4 that, while still falling under federal jurisdiction, nearly half of Oklahoma remains Indian land and is not subject to state jurisdiction in cases involving major crimes

The land in question had been designated “a permanent home to the whole Creek Nation of Indians” by a treaty in 1833. This was not an act of generosity or tolerance on behalf of the United States, but rather a facet of the forced relocation known as the Trail of Tears. Pushed out of their southeastern homes, the Muscogee and other tribes were made to settle in the officially designated Indian Territory. After the former Indian Territory became the state of Oklahoma in 1907, the state commonly dealt with major crimes committed in the nearly 50 percent of its land occupied by various tribes.

In 1997, a Muscogee man named Jimcy McGirt was convicted of sexually abusing a child. After his conviction, McGirt’s attorneys argued that, since his crimes had been committed on tribal lands, Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction over them. In 2020, after hearing oral arguments remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supreme Court sided with McGirt, as Justice Neil Gorsuch joined Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Stephen Breyer.

Rejecting the state’s argument that the 1833 treaty was no longer valid due to having been ignored for over a century, the majority found that the State of Oklahoma did not have jurisdiction over major crimes committed on tribal lands.

Source: history.com