The story of the original Africans first brought to Virginia in 1620 has changed, thanks to a new discovery from documents in the United Kingdom’s National Archives.
“Unfortunately, the hypothesis that (first Africans) arrived in Feb. 1620 made its way into some scholarly literature and the media,” said historian and researcher with the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Martha McCartney. “So I wanted to set the record straight – especially since Virginia is commemorating the first Africans’ arrival 400 years ago.”
On Friday, McCartney wrote a blog post for Jamestown Settlement that said the documents reveal new and vital information about how the first Africans came to Jamestown.
Previously, there had been confusion from historians about the order in which events occurred, said Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation spokesman Robert Jeffrey. The post states that the confusion was the result of misleading abstracts from particular historical documents.
The documents told a story that the ship had sailed to Bermuda before any passengers could disembark and then returned months later with more Africans, finally coming ashore in Virginia in 1620.
But new research from McCartney reveals documents that show a 1619 date.
“When I heard – and read – that some others were saying that the Africans aboard the Treasurer didn’t reach Virginia until February 1620, it just didn’t make sense,” McCartney said. “When I realized that those folks were basing their findings on abstracts…of the original records but hadn’t looked at the originals themselves, I decided to order copies. I did that several months ago and then transcribed them. The documents speak for themselves.”
The new documents tell historians the slave ship San Juan Bautista was bound for a colony in Mexico when it came under attack from the ships — the White Lion and the Treasurer.
From that attack rose an investigation of a breach of a peace pact between Spain and England from which new documents reveal further information about the ships, dates and the slaves aboard.
Five men testified before the English High Court of the Admiralty they were aboard the ship when the Africans were taken at sea during the attack. Two others swore under oath that the Treasurer arrived in Bermuda in 1619 and in February 1620, at which time previous historians said the ship was in Virginia, the Treasurer anchored at a warehouse in St. George’s Town.
“These eyewitnesses discussed how the Africans happened to be captured at sea,” McCartney said. “The Treasurer encountered the White Lion…and 25 men from those two ships overwhelmed a Spanish ship and seized some of the African captives aboard it. This has never been known before….This substantiates what everybody thought.”
During the testimony the men said the ship was in no condition to be sailed again and that Nathaniel Butler, Bermuda’s governor, had the ship’s ordnance removed.
In addition, there were three witnesses who stated the Treasurer brought 25 Africans to Bermuda and then never left.
“The 25 Africans were taken off the ship by Bermuda’s interim governor and the Treasurer’s crew went ashore to live,” McCartney said. “This is new information and contradicts those who said that the ship returned to Virginia in 1620.”
McCartney said it is important for historians to have correct information and that she will continue to pursue the topic independently as a matter of personal interest.
