1619: The Year That Shaped America

[O' Be Joyful]

Four hundred years ago this year, two momentous events happened in Britain’s fledgling colony in Virginia: the New World’s first democratic assembly convened, and an English privateer brought kidnapped Africans to sell as slaves. Such were the conflicted origins of modern America.

James Horn

• Winter 2019
  Volume
  64
  Issue
  1

Historian James Horn, a frequent contributor to American Heritage, is President of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. Portions of this essay appeared in his recent book, 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy (Basic Books)

(snip)

Along the banks of the James River, Virginia, during an oppressively hot spell in the middle of summer 1619, two events occurred within a few weeks of each other that would profoundly shape the course of history. Convened with little fanfare or formality, the first gathering of a representative governing body anywhere in the Americas, the General Assembly, met from July 30 to August 4 in the choir of the newly built church at Jamestown. Following instructions from the Virginia Company of London, the colony’s financial backers, the meeting’s principal purpose was to introduce “just Laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people.” The assembly sat as a single body and was made up of the governor, Sir George Yeardley, his four councilors, and twenty-two burgesses chosen by the free, white, male inhabitants of every town, corporation, and large plantation throughout the colony.

America democracy was conflicted from the beginning, with the first elected assembly and first sale of slaves both happening in 1619.
A few weeks later, a battered English privateer, the White Lion, entered the Chesapeake Bay and anchored off Point Comfort, a small but thriving maritime community at the mouth of the James River that was often a first port of call for oceangoing ships. While roving in the Caribbean, the ship, together with its companion, the Treasurer, had been involved in a fierce battle with a Portuguese slaver bound for Veracruz. Victorious, the two privateers pillaged the Portuguese vessel and sailed away northward carrying dozens of enslaved Africans.

https://www.americanheritage.com/1619-year-shaped-america

 

[5fish]

Victorious, the two privateers pillaged the Portuguese vessel and sailed away northward carrying dozens of enslaved Africans.

Here is the story of the Portuguese slaves of 1619...

Link:https://www.historyisfun.org/chronicles/angela_more.html

From 1618 to 1620 the Portuguese fought the people of Ndongo in western Africa. Thousands of Africans were abducted and killed by African warlords and mercenaries employed by the Portuguese in Angola. Many were marched from their villages to the port of Luanda. Some escaped. Some died. They were often kept in terrible conditions for months until 350 to 400 could be packed together on an available vessel for the journey across the sea. Survivors were shipped in bondage, at first to the mines of Mexico and the fields of Brazil.

The Portuguese had been in Angola for some time — building a large trade industry between Africa, Europe and the New World. There is evidence that some Africans had been baptized in the Christian faith before being enslaved. Others were baptized shortly before being loaded onto ships.

While raiding in the Caribbean the White Lion, along with privateers from another ship, Treasurer, had seized part of a cargo of Africans from a Portuguese slave ship named Sao Jao Bautista bound from the African city of Luanda to Veracruz, Mexico. A short time after the White Lion stopped at Point Comfort, the Treasurer arrived carrying more Africans.

The status of the Africans in Virginia is uncertain, but some were “bought” by Governor Yeardley and Abraham Peirsey — meaning they were either slaves or indentured servants. Without papers of indenture (as carried by most white servants), these new arrivals had no protected legal standing and could be easily exploited.

 

[O' Be Joyful]

Here is the story of the Portuguese slaves of 1619...

Link:https://www.historyisfun.org/chronicles/angela_more.html

From 1618 to 1620 the Portuguese fought the people of Ndongo in western Africa. Thousands of Africans were abducted and killed by African warlords and mercenaries employed by the Portuguese in Angola. Many were marched from their villages to the port of Luanda. Some escaped. Some died. They were often kept in terrible conditions for months until 350 to 400 could be packed together on an available vessel for the journey across the sea. Survivors were shipped in bondage, at first to the mines of Mexico and the fields of Brazil.

The Portuguese had been in Angola for some time — building a large trade industry between Africa, Europe and the New World. There is evidence that some Africans had been baptized in the Christian faith before being enslaved. Others were baptized shortly before being loaded onto ships.

While raiding in the Caribbean the White Lion, along with privateers from another ship, Treasurer, had seized part of a cargo of Africans from a Portuguese slave ship named Sao Jao Bautista bound from the African city of Luanda to Veracruz, Mexico. A short time after the White Lion stopped at Point Comfort, the Treasurer arrived carrying more Africans.

The status of the Africans in Virginia is uncertain, but some were “bought” by Governor Yeardley and Abraham Peirsey — meaning they were either slaves or indentured servants. Without papers of indenture (as carried by most white servants), these new arrivals had no protected legal standing and could be easily exploited.

You are studious, and I will add intentious.

 

[MattL]

Four hundred years ago this year, two momentous events happened in Britain’s fledgling colony in Virginia: the New World’s first democratic assembly convened, and an English privateer brought kidnapped Africans to sell as slaves. Such were the conflicted origins of modern America.

James Horn

• Winter 2019
  Volume
  64
  Issue
  1

Historian James Horn, a frequent contributor to American Heritage, is President of the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation. Portions of this essay appeared in his recent book, 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy (Basic Books)

(snip)

Along the banks of the James River, Virginia, during an oppressively hot spell in the middle of summer 1619, two events occurred within a few weeks of each other that would profoundly shape the course of history. Convened with little fanfare or formality, the first gathering of a representative governing body anywhere in the Americas, the General Assembly, met from July 30 to August 4 in the choir of the newly built church at Jamestown. Following instructions from the Virginia Company of London, the colony’s financial backers, the meeting’s principal purpose was to introduce “just Laws for the happy guiding and governing of the people.” The assembly sat as a single body and was made up of the governor, Sir George Yeardley, his four councilors, and twenty-two burgesses chosen by the free, white, male inhabitants of every town, corporation, and large plantation throughout the colony.

America democracy was conflicted from the beginning, with the first elected assembly and first sale of slaves both happening in 1619.
A few weeks later, a battered English privateer, the White Lion, entered the Chesapeake Bay and anchored off Point Comfort, a small but thriving maritime community at the mouth of the James River that was often a first port of call for oceangoing ships. While roving in the Caribbean, the ship, together with its companion, the Treasurer, had been involved in a fierce battle with a Portuguese slaver bound for Veracruz. Victorious, the two privateers pillaged the Portuguese vessel and sailed away northward carrying dozens of enslaved Africans.

https://www.americanheritage.com/1619-year-shaped-america

Here is the story of the Portuguese slaves of 1619...

Link:https://www.historyisfun.org/chronicles/angela_more.html

From 1618 to 1620 the Portuguese fought the people of Ndongo in western Africa. Thousands of Africans were abducted and killed by African warlords and mercenaries employed by the Portuguese in Angola. Many were marched from their villages to the port of Luanda. Some escaped. Some died. They were often kept in terrible conditions for months until 350 to 400 could be packed together on an available vessel for the journey across the sea. Survivors were shipped in bondage, at first to the mines of Mexico and the fields of Brazil.

The Portuguese had been in Angola for some time — building a large trade industry between Africa, Europe and the New World. There is evidence that some Africans had been baptized in the Christian faith before being enslaved. Others were baptized shortly before being loaded onto ships.

While raiding in the Caribbean the White Lion, along with privateers from another ship, Treasurer, had seized part of a cargo of Africans from a Portuguese slave ship named Sao Jao Bautista bound from the African city of Luanda to Veracruz, Mexico. A short time after the White Lion stopped at Point Comfort, the Treasurer arrived carrying more Africans.

The status of the Africans in Virginia is uncertain, but some were “bought” by Governor Yeardley and Abraham Peirsey — meaning they were either slaves or indentured servants. Without papers of indenture (as carried by most white servants), these new arrivals had no protected legal standing and could be easily exploited.

Yeah that 1619 arrival is very fascinating. This was before the racial slave system in the US fully evolved. Black indentured servants (and Natives) were on average treated worse, though there are exceptions and there were cases of White, Black, Native, and mixed race individuals being indentured along side each other.

Not surprisingly this pre 1680 era in Virginia is where a lot of the earliest mixed race families began in America.

The most comprehensive work of this early cases an an attempted genealogy is the excellent work by Paul Heinegg

http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/

For those White Americans like myself with distant African ancestry (shown by DNA, in my case at least 3 different sources) this is where much of that likely happened. With people of all and mixed races residing in the same social class (more or less) before full on racial slavery began. I have a strong lead on one of my African ancestors, male cousins who are direct paternal descendants of a John Busby ancestor of mine from South Carolina were Y DNA tested and came up Sub-Saharan African. Meaning my Busby ancestry leads paternally to a Black male. Heinegg's work outlines various mixed race and free colored Busby families that likely connect to mine somehow, possibly leading back to a Thomas Busby "Indyan boy" servant to someone in Virginia, born 1674. Likely named for the Thomas Busby who resided nearby who was a royal indian interpreter and dealt in selling Indian slaves and servants (via DNA if this is my line it identifies some were mixed race with an African male ancestor).

That lower class of servants who intermixed made things very complicated and resulted in the tightening of racial roles. With the idea of slavery coming into play (perpetual servitude), it being applied racially, then due to many White men having children with those servants and slaves they instituted the policy of children inheriting their slave status from their mothers. So Black mothers bore black slaves whether the father was White or not. Then with scenarios (like my own ancestor somewhere) with Black men having relations with white women they started passing interracial marriage bans.

In 1691 Virginia was the first colony to ban marriage between free whites and Blacks. Interestingly in 1699 some White Virginia planters submitted a petition against this ban. Among the white names on the list was a George Ivey. Interestingly my Busby cousins Y DNA match a bunch of Ivy/Ivey descendants likely meeting back in Virginia somewhere (all descended from a single African man somewhere).