Fiscal Note
No appropriation required.
Title
Recognizing and Honoring 400 years of African American’s Heritage and Contributions in the United States of America.
Body
WHEREAS, the epic story of African people, on the continent and scattered throughout the diaspora, has not factually or fully been told and important facts such as the African explorers who came free to North America, and early achievements by Africans, such as the domestication of animals, iron smelting and numerous inventions, are largely unknown by most; and,
WHEREAS, the African explorers from Egypt, Ghana and other countries came to these North American shores, left evidence of their presence and then returned to their home countries and African exploration and contributions are documented in They Came before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by historian Ivan Van Sertima; and,
WHEREAS, in August 1619, there is documentation that free Africans, enslaved twice, first by Portuguese slave traders and then by slavers on an English warship, arrived chained in the English colony of Virginia; and,
WHEREAS, these African people, recorded upon arrival as ``20 and odd Negros,'' were part of a larger group of West Africans enslaved by Portuguese slave traders on their way to Vera Cruz; and,
WHEREAS, the White Lion, an English warship, flying a Dutch flag, and operating under Dutch letters of marque captured the Portuguese ship, and transported the Africans to Virginia and were put ashore at Old Point Comfort, in what is now Hampton, Virginia; and,
WHEREAS, their arduous journey testifies to the triangular trade route severing family connections between African people on the continent, in North and South America and the Caribbean; and,
WHEREAS, these enslaved people were sold as involuntary laborers or indentured servants and slavery had not been legally institutionalized, but Africans, unlike European involuntary laborers or indentured servants, were never given the date of expect...
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