Virginia Slavery in Atlantic Context, 1550 to 1650

Abstract

This chapter locates the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia in 1619 with the Atlantic context of the first phase of the slave trade, during which the trade was dominated by the Spanish and Portuguese. It first explores how and why English colonists sought to revive the institution of slavery that had become largely moribund in England. They did so primarily by borrowing ideas and economic frameworks from the Spanish-American system of African enslavement. The chapter then locates the Africans who arrived in Virginia in 1619 within the broad contours of the Portuguese Atlantic slave trade. These first Afro-Virginians were captured from a Portuguese slaving vessel, and the particular patterns of African embarkation in the Portuguese trade during these years had critical implications for their attitudes, experiences, and opportunities once they arrived in the Chesapeake. The chapter argues that 1619 is best understood as merely part of a broader process through which the Iberian Atlantic system of African slavery came to be adopted and adapted by English colonists in the Americas.