First Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam (New York)

The Dutch West India Company imported eleven enslaved African men to New Amsterdam (present-day New York City) in 1626, the first documented enslaved people in what would become New York. They were forced to labor on Company projects including building fortifications. Their names — Paul d'Angola, Simon Congo, Anthony Portuguese, and others — were recorded in Dutch colonial records, marking the founding of chattel slavery in the mid-Atlantic region.