The first Africans — who were forcibly brought to Virginia in the early 17th century — were kidnapped from the region of West Central Africa. Their arrival in 1619 marked an early chapter in what would become the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
A memorial at modern-day Fort Monroe, where the enslaved Africans arrived, was dedicated April 24.
“The African Landing Memorial at Fort Monroe seeks to interpret this historical event beginning with the origins of the people—what their life might have been like prior to their abduction, the journey across thousands of miles of ocean– to their landing at Point Comfort and the lives they made for themselves,” the 1619 Landing website reads…