These were the first documented people of African descent to arrive in English America. Just a few weeks later and a few miles away, a cargo of “twenty and odd negroes” was bartered away by passing Dutch sailors. During the first few days of August 1619, the first elected lawmaking body in English America gathered at Jamestown, Virginia, and laid out new rules for private landownership and labor management that would tie commerce to American settlement. In the summer of 1619, the colony of Virginia witnessed two landmark events in the history of the English Atlantic world. Virginia in 1619: Legacies for Race, Commonwealth, and EmpireĬo-Convenors: Paul Musselwhite (Dartmouth) & James Horn (Historic Jamestowne)
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