August ndash Captain
Jope's ship brings the first
Africans to what will later be called
America.
Jope trades these
Africans for food and supplies. This trade of
Africans is as temporary
indentured servants in the same way that English whites are owned as laborers in the New World. Because the
Spanish had Christianized these
Africans, this labor arrangement is for a specified time and then they are free to live their lives, just as the English laborers are. These
Africans had been stolen from the cargo of a
Spanish vessel on the high seas. The enslavement of
Africans in
America is progressively and intentionally implemented later, beginning with the sentencing of
John Punch in 1640.