The First Africans: Origins to Revolution

Start where the story really begins — not on a slave ship, but in the empires of Mali and Songhai and the kingdoms of Kongo and Ndongo.

1526: the first enslaved Africans in what is now the U.S. arrive with a Spanish colony — and rebel within months.

1619: the "20 and odd" Africans land at Point Comfort, Virginia, into a status not yet fixed as slavery.

Watch a fluid servitude harden into lifelong slavery, one court ruling at a time.

1676: the interracial revolt that convinced Virginia to write race into law for good.

Follow the laws themselves — the deliberate construction of American slavery.

1739: the largest revolt in the mainland colonies, marching for freedom in Spanish Florida.

Freedom had an address: the first free Black town in the present-day United States.

A young enslaved poet disproves an empire's central lie about Black humanity.

1775: the Revolution becomes a fight for Black freedom too, as thousands seize the chance to escape slavery.