The Algernourne Oak
The Tree
Algernourne Oak
Quercus virginiana
Location: Fort Monroe, near Hampton, Virginia
Age: Approximately 500 years old
The Story
1619 and the Beginnings of Slavery in America
What did 0ur ancestors see?
In Africa
Enslaved African labor became a part of America's foundation in 1619 when Jamestown’s English leaders purchased Africans to work for them in the colony of Virginia. Historical records indicate that the roughly 30 Africans sold at Point Comfort that day in August of 1619 were originally from the highlands in the northwestern region of Angola. This image of a Baoabab tree, Andansonia digitata, is referred to as The Imbondeiro Tree in Angola. It is Angola's national tree, and it is one of the many trees that the Africans who were brought to Virginia would have encountered in Angola.
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While the first Africans who were brought to Point Comfort and Jamestown were more than likely familiar with the baobab and its ability to provide sustenance and healing, they were also familiar with many other trees that grew throughout the savannah, the plateaus and even the Miombo Woodlands, the dense forest that covers much of cental Angola and extends into swaths of the land where the first Africans probably lived in Angola before being captured. Come along with me on this journey to discover more about the land that our first ancestors in Virginia actually knew as their home.
In Virginia
This Virginia Live Oak, called the Algernourne Oak, is one of the few living examples of what the terrain, the land, looked like in 1619 when the first Africans were brought to Point Comfort. At the time, the area was also called Fort Algernourne; now, it is called Fort Monroe. Point Comfort was connected to the now City of Hampton, Virginia by a thin isthmus, and it has played a central role in America's development since the English came here in 1607.
According to researchers who have investigated the tree, the Algernourne Oak is roughly 500 years old today. This means that the tree was about 100 years old when the first Africans were brought to the land in 1619. Continue below to learn more about the land that the Africans encountered and had to adjust to when they were brought here from their homelands in Africa.
The Land
In Africa
Based on Portuguese and English records, the first Africans brought to Virginia by the English came from Angola, and they were Mbundu people from the Kingdom of Ndongo. This map shows you where Angola is located in Africa.
Approximate location of the Kingdom of Ndongo, 1619
After researching for some time and reviewing a number of maps, I have learned that this is an approximate location of the Kingdom of Ndongo during the early 1600s. First, the kingdom was made up of much smaller groups of people who could move about to meet the demand for food, shelter, and desired space. Also, the kingdom had a strong army, so the kingdom expanded as the leaders and warriors expanded their territory. An example of this occurred when Queen Nzinga moved into Malanje as she fought against the Portuguese. One significant marker is that the Kingdom held territory in the area where the Cuanza (Kwanza) and Lucala Rivers meet. CLICK ON EACH LAND FEATURE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT IT.
Notice how the land changes from the coastal lowlands along the Atlantic Ocean to one that is more mountainous with elevated plateaus. This is called the Angolan Escarpment, and you can see this transition occur from north to south. The Ndongo are believed to have lived on the plateaus in this specific region along the escarpment. They also spread out into lands in the direction of the Malanje Plateau.
Atlantic Ocean
Luanda
Capital city of Angola; created by the Portuguese to establish their slave trading port in Angola​.
Approximate location of the
Kingdom of Ndongo, 1619
on the 2024 Map of Angola's Provinces
The first Africans are believed to be Mbundu people. Today, Mbundu people still live in this region. Many live in the provinces of Cuanza Norte, Bengo, and Malanje.
from Provinces of Angola
The Climate
a TROPICAL SAVANNAH
TWO
S
E
A
S
O
N
S
Rainy/Wet Season:
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October-April
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Dry Season called "Cacimbo":
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May-September
Rainy/Wet Season:
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low 60s - low 80s F with slightly cooler temperatures in Malanje
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Dry Season called "Cacimbo":
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low 50s - low 90s F ​
Understanding
the
climate
in any given area helps us
understand how the people subsist, live.
OTHER CLIMATE CHARACTERISTICS
Wind Speed
Rainy/Wet Season:
Dry Season called "Cacimbo":
4 - 5 mph
6 - 7.5 mph
Dense Fog
During "Cacimbo" or the dry season, dense fog tends to fill the savannah and woodlands.
Precipitation
Average Rainfall
Rainy/Wet Season:
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3 - 6in per month​
Dry Season called "Cacimbo":
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0 - .5in per month​
The land as refuge...
Pedras Negras at Pungo Adongo
the SACRED Land
The Kalandula Falls were sacred to
the Ndongo. Here they performed spiritual practices for healing, well-being, and the protection of their people.
The Cuanza River
The Cuanza River flows from Central Angola to the Atlantic Ocean, and the Portuguese used this river to transport slaves to Luanda. From holding our enslaved ancestors at forts in Massangano and finally in Luanda, the Portuguese would ship the enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to Spanish and Portuguese colonists in the New World who lived near ports in areas like Brazil, the Caribbean, and Mexico. The colonists would purchase the Africans from the slave traffickers who piloted the slave ships. In the video below, watch the Tucker family from Hampton, Virginia retrace their ancestors' forced removal from Angola in 1619 by following the Portuguese enslavement route along the Cuanza River.
Luanda, the point of no return
The Portuguese used the Port of Luanda t0 transport millions of stolen and enslaved Angolan Africans to their colonies in Brazil, the Caribbean, and Mexico. When English pirates prowled the Atlantic Ocean looking to steal from the Spanish, they often times stole enslaved Africans in the process of attacking and robbing these ships. England, Spain, and Portugal understood that the Africans held the skillset to make their usurped lands in the New World vastly profitable. However, England struggled to compete against Portugal's and Spain's grip on the slave trade in Africa, so English pirates, or privateers, robbed Spanish and Portuguese ships to ascertain enslaved Africans as well as treasures like gold, silver, pearls, and even sugar. This is how the first group of Africans were brought to the English settlement of Virginia in 1619. They had been placed on a Spanish slave ship called the Saint John the Baptist, or Sao Joao Baptista in Portuguese, in about April or May of 1619 at the Port of Luanda. English sea captains then robbed the ship and stole about 60 of the enslaved Africans onboard just miles from their intended landing in Vera Cruz, Mexico. These ancestors landed at Point Comfort in August of 1619 and were promptly purchased by the governor of Virginia and other Jamestown leaders.