Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-08-04

pllcateu ABOUT 1t at the begin
ming.
A Dutch ship dropped anchor
In the harbor at jamestown,
-N------~-~-----~----
This Is the seventh Of q series Of Is
eFtieles surveying the FoeioI crisis.
Va, one sweaty August Cay and
It's captain, named Jope, rowed
ashore and told tobacco man
John Rolfe and some of the
others that he had q cargo of
40 Negars" which he wished
to swap for food.
The Negroes probably had
been captured as pirate booty
on the high seas from some
Spanish vessel, for they had
names like Isabella, Pedro and
Antonio, although the language
they spoke surely wasn't Span
ish.
Where they came from really
didn't matter much to the colo
nists. After all, many were in
dentured servants themselves.
In fact, Just few months ear
lier boatload Of 90 young
maidens" hae arrived from Eu-
rope to become wives Of the
first 30 bachelors who would
go the price Of 20 pounds of
tobacco per maiden.
Year Was 1919
The year was 1919. In some
respects it is as profound a
date In American history as the
following year, 1920, when the
Mayflower arrived.
However wide the chaSm of
racial separation was to become
during the succeeding 312 CEN
turtles, not a single segment In
. the fabric of American life
would 60 untouched by the
black tread introduced into the
Nations social and cultural
loom that day at jamestown.
Harpers Ferry, Little Rock,
bloody Kansas, Birmingham
what generation has not known
racial violence2 bred Scott,
.MeGgar Eyers, Theodore Bilbo,
Marcus Carney, John Brown =
how many names has "the Me-
gro question: thrust into ma
'tional prominence? Lynch law,
Mr.. Interlocutor, freedom rides,
underground railroad, jazz, Ku
Klux Khan, sit-ins, eeny meeny
miney moe. catch q Niger by
the toe-what man, woman or
child in all the land can say he
has escaped the influence of
the Negro in his midst?
Suspected Nothing
The people Of Jamestown
could have suspected none of
this; their part in the emery
ing drama was innocent
enough.
The 20 Negroes NEEDED quite
nicely into their established
system Of servitude, whereby a.
man could be sold, or sell him
self, for q certain duration.
After working or buying off
his bondage, he was as free,
white or black, as any other
man. For four decades, Ne
groes lived in Virginia on q
basis Of equality, accommodating
land, voting In assemblies. One
Negro even bought q white SER
want. There was no inferiority,
attached to skin color. That
came later.
The significance Of their ar
rival In 1919 was that it marked
the first contact between the
American Colonies and the At
1antic slave trade.
Is It was perhaps inevitable
that America should be caught
up In the trade. For nearly
four centuries, beginning about
1900, slave ships flying Portu-
Huese, Dutch, English and, fin
ally, American flags competed
for favor on the African Coast.
Stacked Like COrdwOOd
They stacked their human
cargo like cordwood in the fetid
holds and in the 2-foot space
tween decks and headed for
the thriving markets In the
New World. Each day during
the 10-week voyage, they could
count on having to toss a few
dead ones over the side. Mutt
Mes were frequent; suicides
commonplace.
, Most Of the slaves imported