News Flash

Join historian Martha W. McCartney as she shares her recent discoveries about the Africans brought to Point Comfort in August of 1619.

Through newly-examined documents preserved in the United Kingdom’s  National Archives, more details are now known about this pivotal event in American history. We now know how many Africans were aboard the Treasurer and how many of them were put ashore in Virginia. Previously some scholars  had argued that the Africans aboard the Treasurer did not come ashore in Virginia until February 1620. This interpretation had the ship sailing to Bermuda before anyone on board could disembark, then returning several months later with Africans (including Angelo) aboard. However, the documents themselves support the 1619 date.

About the Speaker
Martha W. McCartney is an award-winning research historian and author of several non-fiction books.  A graduate of William and Mary graduate, she worked for thirteen years at the Virginia Research Center for Archaeology researching and excavating diverse archaeological sites in Virginia.

Since 1986, she has worked as an independent historian helping Virginian archaeologists. McCartney is also a consultant for the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and was project historian for the National Park Service's Jamestown Archaeological Assessment.

She has written several books and published many articles. Her books include:The history of Riverview plantation, James City County, Virginia (1991), James City County: Keystone of the Commonwealth (1997), The History of Green Spring Plantation (1998), The Free Black Community at Centerville (2000), Jamestown (2001), A Study of Africans and African  Americans on Jamestown Island and at Green Spring, 1619-1803 (2003),  Virginia Immigrants and Adventurers, 1607-1635: A Biographical Dictionary (2007), and Jordan's Point, Virginia: Archaeology in Perspective, Prehistoric to Modern Times (2011).