This episode examines the arrival of the first Africans – Angolans, specifically – in English North America on a privateer called the White Lion. We look at the much-debated status of the new arrivals, the circumstances of their arrival, their origins in Angola under unbelievably brutal conditions, their treatment in American history over the last 145 years, and their significance in the History of the Americans.

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Selected references for this episode

James Horn, 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy

John Thornton, “The African Experience of the “20. and Odd Negroes” Arriving in Virginia in 1619,” The William and Mary Quarterly, June 1998

George Bancroft, History Of The United States Of America

Carl Degler, Out of Our Past

Jill LePore, These Truths

“Here Come The Bridges” Theme Song

Independence Day (Alien scene)