On August 20, 1619, “20 and odd” Angolans, kidnapped by the Portuguese, arrive in the British colony of Virginia and sold English colonists. These slaves were captured by Kongo and Ndonga kingdoms in western Africa and sold to Spanish slave traders who loaded them onto the San Juan Bautista and set sail for Veracruz on the Spanish Main.  Spain began importing African slaves to the Spanish Main in 1502.  Prior to then, there were a few African slaves (most notably in the households of the army of Hernán Cortés) but most of the indigenous population of New Spain had been reduced to slavery for in cane plantations, livestock and mining; others were part of domestic servitude. 

In the 1520’s Spain began importing African slaves en mass because they had decimated the indigenous population. It was one of these Spanish slave ships that fell prey to the pirate ships White Lion and the Treasurer and about 60 slaves were taken as spoils from the Bautista’s cargo holds. The White Lion then sailed to Virginia and traded some of these prisoners for food on August 20, 1619.

Technically, these people were not sold as slaves as Britian did not trade in slaves.  They were sold as indentured servants which was merely a technicality since indentured servants were forced to work with no pay for a set amount of time. Theoretically, once these indentured servants paid off their purchase price, they would become free.  Many Europeans who arrived in the Americas came as indentured servants. I reality, since the owner set the terms of the contract, these people were slaves for their entire life. 

Two of the Africans who arrived aboard the White Lion, Antonio and Isabella, became “servants” of Captain William Tucker, commander of Point Comfort. Their son William is the first known African child to have been born in America, and under the law of the time he was born a freeman. Unfortunately, more white indentured servants working off their contracts and fewer new indentured servants arriving from England, the elite of Virginia were economically squeezed.  No longer did they have a source of cheap labor.

Virginia’s solution was to introduce a racial caste system under which African servants were increasingly held for life.  Servants of African origin were forced to continue working after the end of their indenture contracts (if a formal contract even existed), and in 1640 a Virginia court sentenced rebellious servant John Punch to a lifetime of slavery. In 1662, a Virginia court ruled that children born to enslaved mothers were the property of the mother’s owner.  Slavery became codified. 

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