Many Rivers to Cross: The First Africans in Virginia

Old Point Comfort in Hampton VA is the original landing site of the first Africans to an English Colony in North America in 1619.  Two of the Africans remained at Old Point Comfort and became the servants of Captain William Tucker. Antonio and Isabella married and had a son they named William Tucker and who was the first African American child born in America. Old Point Comfort at Fort Monroe is also noted for the important role it played as "freedom's fortress." In 1861, Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, and James Townsend, three runaway slaves,  sought refuge at the Union Fort Monroe and were declared "contrabands of war" by Major General Benjamin Butler.

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