THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 28, 1994 TAG: 9408260266
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Olde Towne Journal
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines
Sometime in August 1619, a merchantman of still unknown origins arrived in Hampton Roads.
Whether it flew the flag of Belgium or Holland is still a question. The exact number of its human cargo is unknown. Whether they were slaves or indentured servants is still a matter of controversy. Just how they finally got to Jamestown is unclear.
But what is certain is that the first arrival of Africans in North America, 375 years ago, marked a significant turning point in the history of the colonies and later the United States.
Although there is little detail on their beginning, their coming did not go unnoticed. John Smith wrote in his ``The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles,'' that ``about the last of August came in a dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars.''
No matter the confusion over the number or the nationality of the ship that brought them, the first Africans to land on these shores found themselves in Jamestown where they were traded for goods.
Through that transaction, they became, in every respect, the property of Royal Governor George Yeardley and Abraham Peirsey. The bartering of goods for human flesh in North America had begun. Ironically, it was the same year that democracy in a bicameral system commenced in North America with the first meeting of the House of Burgesses in Jamestown. The fact that the first women also arrived that year made it indeed a ``red letter year.''
That the institution of slavery caught on so quickly and took such deep root in Virginia and particularly in Tidewater is no mystery.
Once the first colonials stopped searching for the easy riches of gold and other precious minerals along the James and Elizabeth Rivers, they discovered an even more valuable natural element on the shore. The Powhatan Indians presented them with tobacco as a peace offering or gift, and men such as John Rolfe were not only hooked, but immediately sent the stuff back to London, where it was smoked and called ``the golden leaf.''
The soil for growing tobacco was found to be perfect and the growing season was long, which brought up the next question: Who would work the tobacco fields? The answer was tragically simple; contact the Dutch and Belgians, who ran slave markets on the west shore of Africa, and import more slaves to Virginia.
By 1650, Virginia's main purpose was to furnish London markets with as much tobacco as possible.
The long-term effect was felt across Hampton Roads including Norfolk County. Criss-crossed by a number of small tobacco farms, this area reflected Virginia's dependency on a single cash crop and its need for cheap human labor.
Trading ports such as Norfolk, Portsmouth, Hampton and Yorktown soon sprung up along the deep natural harbors of the area's rivers. Even a royal shipyard would find its origins directly linked to tobacco and slavery by the mid-18th century in colonial Gosport.
Tobacco convoys needed ship repair and support for their British escorts, and the artisans who flooded into this area during the 1750s happily obliged.
British colonial officials, meanwhile, were not about to check the flow of slaves into Hampton Roads. As long as London tobacco merchants were getting rich, the Crown was happy.
Looking through the early Norfolk County, Virginia Will Book from 1755-1772, the notion of large plantations such as those romantically and erroneously depicted in later motion pictures such as ``Gone With the Wind'' is quickly dispelled.
There were indeed, however, prosperous tobacco farmers.
James Wilson, for example, owned hundreds of acres around Great Bridge. To his children he passed large tracts and issues of slaves to work them. For example in his will, dated 13 January 1749, he leaves to one of his sons, Nathaniel, ``negroes Nan and Fefea with their issue.'' To one of his daughters, Ann, among a bed and other furniture, he leaves ``negroes Sam and Lidia.'' To his daughter, Uphan, he leaves ``negroes Tripper and Pleasant; foal; negro Salle and her increase to be divided between Ann and Uphan when Uphan is 16 years of age.''
Thus the institution of slavery was passed on both sides from one generation to another.
Uphan Wilson, at the age of 16, would be, by her father's will, a slave owner. Those she didn't care to keep were taken into Portsmouth or Norfolk and sold at the public slave market.
The legacy of the arrival of those first Africans from human bondage, through civil war, then freedom, finally citizenship and equality began here 375 years ago. ILLUSTRATION: Engravings from THE NEGRO ALMANAC
New slaves being unloaded in America were subjected to harsh,
inhuman treatment by their masters.
Copy of sale announcement
KEYWORDS: HISTORY SLAVERY by CNB