This Day in History

First slaves brought to Jamestown, Virginia

1619: Slaves, it is thought, were first brought to the English colony of Jamestown, Virginia, on this day. Subsequently Africans were transshipped to North America from the Caribbean in increasing numbers. Initially, however, the English colonists relied for their dependent labour primarily on indentured servants from the mother country. In the 1660s and '70s the laws of slave ownership were clarified (for example, Africans who converted to Christianity did no longer have to be manumitted), and the price of servants may have increased because of rising wage rates in prospering England; soon thereafter African slaves replaced English indentured labourers.