From Fort to Port: Examining the Legacies of 1619 at Jamestown

2019 will mark the 400th anniversary of the first representative assembly in the western hemisphere and the arrival of the first Africans in mainland English America. Both events are closely connected to Jamestown. The General Assembly was held in Jamestown’s church in the summer of 1619 and of the first two dozen Africans forcibly transported to Virginia, several lived and worked in Jamestown, on neighboring plantations, or passed through on their way upriver. Ongoing archaeological projects to examine the remains of the 1617 church where the assembly met and at the site where one of the first Africans, a woman name Angela, lived are shedding new light on the landscapes of both events. This session will present some of the findings from this new research to contextualize the events of 1619 and examine Jamestown’s evolution as well as some of the possible approaches for on-site and online presentation.