I recently became a
resident of the state of Virginia. As I
explore the rolling hills of this beautiful state, I often wonder how many of
my enslaved ancestors were transported here directly from West Africa or from
the Caribbean via West Africa.
Transatlantic slave trade data, in which I will expound upon in this
post, suggests that many were. In fact, most African Americans –
descendants of enslaved people brought to American shores – had a number of
family lineages that began here in Virginia.
Some of those lineages may have started back as early as 1619 in
Jamestown, Virginia, but many of those lineages began later as enslaved
Africans were most heavily transported into the state from 1676 to 1776. In essence, my moving to Virginia felt like I
was almost completing the circle, although the American beginnings were filled
with austere hardships. My completion of that circle will come one day when I
revisit a nation in West Africa, stand in the vicinity of where a known African
ancestor was born, and touch the soil they were taken away from.
The matri-lineage of three
of my Virginia-born ancestors has been linked back to West Africa via DNA
analysis by African Ancestry, Inc. My father’s great-great-grandmother, Caroline Morris of Warren County,
Mississippi, was born around 1820 in Greensville County, Virginia. Her matri-lineage matched the Tikar people of
Cameroon. Perhaps, my “Priscilla” was
Caroline’s maternal grandmother or great-grandmother? My mother’s great-great-grandmother, Fanny Barr, was born somewhere in
Virginia around 1790. She was sold down south to Abbeville, South Carolina by
1810, and later taken to Pontotoc County, Mississippi in 1859, where she died
at the old age of near 100. Her
matri-lineage matched the Yoruba and Fulani peoples of Nigeria. Perhaps,
another “Priscilla” in my family tree was Grandma Fanny’s maternal
grandmother? My mother’s
4X-great-grandmother, Jenny Boyce,
is believed to have been born here in Virginia around 1765. Jenny is my
“mitochondrial (mtDNA) ancestor,” and my mtDNA matches the Fulbe (Fulani)
people of northern Cameroon; their origins began in northern Nigeria. Perhaps, my third “Priscilla” of many was Grandma
Jenny’s mother and stolen from Nigeria?
Was it coincidental that
my three DNA-tested lineages from Virginia have been linked back to Nigeria and
neighboring Cameroon? My answer is not
necessarily. Why? Well, let’s see what transatlantic slave
trade facts and statistics reveal in a nutshell.
African Origins of Virginia Slaves
Historians have
estimated that nearly 100,000 Africans were disembarked on Virginia shores;
many were directly from Africa. Consequently, Virginia ranked second among the
areas where slave traders imported at least 30% of all Africans that were imported
into North America. South Carolina ranked first. The African “hotspots” where
Virginia slave traders obtained most of their human cargo included the Bight of
Biafra region, the Angola-Congo region, the Gold Coast region (Ghana), and the Senegambia region. The following
chart gives the percentage of Africans imported into Virginia from identifiable
African regions [Source:
Philip D. Curtin, The Atlantic Slave
Trade: A Census (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969), 157.]:
The Bight of Biafra (modern Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon)
Senegambia (modern Senegal and the Gambia)
The Gold Coast (modern Ghana)
Bight of Benin (modern Togo and Benin)
Windward Coast (modern Côte d'Ivoire / Ivory Coast)
See
a great African ethnic groups map at this
link.
Other Virginia Facts:
The five river
districts in Virginia that were the primary entrances where many enslaved
Africans were disembarked were the following:
a.
the
York River district
b.
the
Rappahannock River district
c.
the
South Potomac River district
d.
the
Upper James River district
e.
the
Lower James River district
By the time slavery
ended in 1865, more than 500,000
enslaved Virginians had been transported to the Deep South states (Alabama,
Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, etc.). Historians have estimated that nearly
350,000
of that 500,000 had been traded rather than being transported by their
enslavers who relocated to the Deep South (Tadman,
Michael. “The Interregional Slave Trade in the History and Myth-Making of the
U.S. South.”, 11-46). Grandma Fanny Barr was one of them. Both situations resulted in the permanent separation
from family members whose circumstances allowed them to remain here in
Virginia. There’s no wonder that my DNA segments, as well as many others, are
matching people whose immediate families are from Virginia. In many of our family histories, Virginia, as
well as South Carolina, is no doubt Ground Zero in America.
One of my mother’s Virginia-based DNA cousins from 23andMe who is currently
anonymous.
The African American Blogging Circle is a group of
genealogy bloggers who are sharing their family stories, seen through their own
personal lens, from the PBS series, The
African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross.
Click here
for a list of the participating bloggers and check out their stories.
Watch Episode One
