‘Beyond Jamestown’: Lecture to explore the importance of 1619 in African and Atlantic World contexts

By Brian McNeill

Robert Trent Vinson, Ph.D., the Frances L. and Edwin L. Cummings Professor of Africana Studies and History at William & Mary, will deliver a lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University titled “Beyond Jamestown: Why 1619 Matters in African and Atlantic World Contexts.”

Vinson will speak at 4:30 p.m. Nov. 13 in the SGA Board Room of University Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. The event will be free and open to the public.

Vinson’s talk coincides with the 400th anniversary of the first documented arrival of Africans to the colony of Virginia, marking the beginning of slavery in the United States.

Their arrival was described by John Rolfe: “About the latter end of August, a Dutch man of Warr of the burden of a 160 tunes arrived at Point-Comfort, the Comandors name Capt Jope, his Pilott for the West Indies one Mr Marmaduke an Englishman. … He brought not any thing but 20. and odd Negroes, w[hich] the Governo[r] and Cape Merchant bought for victuall[s].”

Vinson’s lecture is sponsored by the Alexandrian Society at VCU, with support from the VCU Student Government Association and the Department of History in the College of Humanities and Sciences.