Question: When did the people who first imported slaves to New York, come to the country where Lord of the Rings was filmed?

Interracial relationships have had a long history in North America and the United States, beginning with the intermixing of European explorers and soldiers, who took native women as companions. After European settlement increased, traders and fur trappers often married or had unions with women of native tribes. In the 17th century, faced with a continuing, critical labor shortage, colonists primarily in the Chesapeake Bay Colony, imported Africans as laborers, sometimes as indentured servants and, increasingly, as slaves. African slaves were also imported into New York and other northern ports by the Dutch and later English. Some African slaves were freed by their masters during these early years. <SEP> Considered to be one of the biggest and most ambitious film projects ever undertaken, with an overall budget of $281 million (some sources say $310 - $330 million), the entire project took eight years, with the filming for all three films done simultaneously and entirely in New Zealand, Jackson's native country. Each film in the series also had special extended editions released on DVD a year after their respective theatrical releases. While the films follow the book's general storyline, they do omit some of the novel's plot elements and include some additions to and deviations from the source material. <SEP> The history of New Zealand dates back at least 700 years to when it was discovered and settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Māori culture centred on kinship links and land. The Dutch were also the first non-natives to explore and chart New Zealand's coastline. Captain James Cook, who reached New Zealand in October 1769 on the first of his three voyages, was the first European explorer to circumnavigate and map New Zealand. The first European explorer to sight New Zealand was Dutch navigator Abel Tasman on 13 December 1642. From the late 18th century, the country was regularly visited by explorers and other sailors, missionaries, traders and adventurers. In 1840 the Treaty of Waitangi was signed between the British Crown and various Māori chiefs, bringing New Zealand into the British Empire and giving Māori the same rights as British subjects. There was extensive British settlement throughout the rest of the century and into the early part of the next century. War and the imposition of a European economic and legal system led to most of New Zealand's land passing from Māori to Pākehā (European) ownership, and most Māori subsequently became impoverished. <SEP> bret mckenzie, half of the musical comedy duo flight of the conchords and a wellington native, first landed a small role as an extra in the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring. he appears sitting next to aragorn during the council in rivendell scene. when it is decided that the ring must be destroyed, frodo offers to take the ring to mordor, and elrond proclaims the formation of the fellowship of the ring. the elf was dubbed ``figwit ''by tolkien fan iris hadad; after seeing frodo agree to take the ring, saying`` i will take it'', the film switches to a shot where figwit can be seen standing on the far right, and hadad's initial reaction was ``frodo is grea... who is that?!? ''later, hadad corresponded with her university friend sherry de andres, and the two created the first figwit fan website, www.figwitlives.net, calling him`` legolas for the thinking woman''. <SEP> both the dutch and the british imported african slaves as laborers to the city and colony; new york had the second - highest population of slaves after charleston, south carolina. slavery was extensive in new york city and some agricultural areas. the state passed a law for the gradual abolition of slavery soon after the revolutionary war, but the last slave in new york was not freed until 1827.