New Revelations Highlight Complex History of America's First Slaves

Sunday's Washington Post featured a fascinating story about the origins of the original slaves who came to the American colonies in the early 17th century. Long shrouded in mystery, the evolving developments demonstrate that much of what schoolchildren were taught about those first African-Americans was essentially myth. According to the article,

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The slaves were herded onto a Portuguese slave ship in Angola, in Southwest Africa. The ship was seized by British pirates on the high seas — not brought to Virginia after a period of time in the Caribbean. The slaves represented one ethnic group, not many, as historians first believed.”
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The history that is being revealed demonstrates the international reach and cultural complexity of the slave trade, one of original flatteners of the Earth’s economic and political systems. The Africans defied the typical caricature of uneducated savages,

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And they most likely had been baptized as Christians, because the kingdom of Ndongo converted to Christianity in 1490. Many were literate. This background may be one reason some of Virginia’s first Africans won their freedom after years as indentured servants, the historians said.”
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With Virginia approaching its 400th anniversary, and efforts afoot to finish the national slavery museum, this new wrinkle presents another opportunity for all Americans, and especially black and white Southerners, to reexamine fundamental racial assumptions. For African-Americans, it will hopefully fill another missing link in a truly vibrant history that is all too often defined by victimization.