Aug. 20, 1619
Sydney King Credit: Courtesy of the National Park Service
More than 20 Africans, kidnapped by Portuguese forces from what is now Angola, landed in Point Comfort (now Hampton Roads, Virginia) on a 160-ton English ship known as the White Lion. They were the first recorded Africans to arrive in England’s American colonies. They included Anthony and Isabela whose son, William, became the first African child born in English North America. By the time slavery ended, nearly 15 million Africans had landed in the Americas.
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