History of the United States I / Unit 3 USH1 0320 short lesson, about 20 seconds
1619: Two Firsts
Captions available
The idea
By sixteen nineteen Virginia had a governor, a council and the House of Burgesses. The first Africans arrived in Virginia the same year, and slavery had not yet become institutionalised.
In practice
Some working as servants comparable to White counterparts, acquiring land, and becoming free landowners themselves.
Where people slip
The transformation into perpetual chattel slavery came in the last decades of the century.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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