Bermuda and the Beginnings of Black Anglo-America

Although 1619 stands out as a landmark year in early American history, Virginia was not the first English colony to import African laborers; that dubious distinction belongs to its Atlantic sister colony, Bermuda. The first arrived in 1616, and, by the time Jamestown's "twenty and odd negroes" landed, Bermuda had a hundred or more black residents. This essay examines why and how Bermuda's English colonizers deliberately imported African experts from the Spanish Caribbean to solve the problem of properly curing island-grown tobacco and argues that their contributions were critical to the colony's success. Integrated into the island's fledgling society as farmers, neighbors, knowledgeable consultants, and fellow Christians, black islanders were highly visible participants in Bermuda's full settlement. As Virginians wrestled with the novelty of incorporating Africans into their colony, they needed only to look to the east to see Bermuda's nascent slave system emerging.