The first Africans arrived in English America in 1619 at Jamestown as
- A
Royal officials; appointed by the Crown to oversee the Virginia tobacco economy
- B
Plantation owners; bringing enslaved laborers from Portuguese Angola with them
- Ccheck_circle
Status disputed; treated initially more like indentured servants but soon transitioned to chattel slavery
- D
Free settlers; granted full citizenship and headrights upon arrival in the Chesapeake
Explanation
Their precise status remains debated; by mid-17th century, racial chattel slavery was codified in Virginia law.