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Only a drop of the heaven's blue Left in a way-side cup; Only a joy for the plodding few And eyes that look not up. Only a weed to the passer-by, Growing among the rest; Yet something clear as the light of the sky It lodges in my breast. In the month of August, 1620, a Dutch man-of-war from Guinea entered James River and sold "twenty negars."
It is only for Virginia that we can state with definiteness the year in which Negro slaves were first brought to an English colony on the mainland. When legislation on the subject of slavery first appears elsewhere, slaves are already present. "About the last of August ," says John Rolfe in John Smith's Generall Historie, "came in a Dutch man of warre, that sold us twenty Negars."
The Dutch brought the first slaves to the North American continent. John Rolfe relates that the last of August, 1619, there came to Virginia "a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars." This was probably one of the ships of the numerous private Dutch trading companies which early entered into the developed and the lucrative African slave trade.
The American Revolution began not with the Stamp Act but at least a century earlier, as soon as the settlers realized that there were three thousand miles of sea between England and the rude country in which they found themselves; the Civil War began, if not in early Virginia, with the "Dutch Man of Warre that sold us twenty Negars," at least with Eli Whitney and his cotton gin.
The "kids" were trapanned, by the fair promises of crimps or "spirits," in Scotland, Ireland, and England, where kidnapping formed an extensive and incredibly bold business. The Scots were brought over and sold at the time of English wars. At one time "Scots, Indians, and Negars" were not allowed to train in the militia in Massachusetts.
In 1619, we are told, "came a Dutch man of war with 20 negars." The ship was probably English rather than Dutch.
John Rolfe, back in Virginia, though without his Indian princess, who now lies in English earth, jots down and makes no comment upon what he has written: "About the last of August came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty Negars." No European state of that day, few individuals, disapproved of the African slave trade. That dark continent made a general hunting-ground.
If the plantation system were to be perpetuated an entirely different labor supply must be had. "About the last of August came in a Dutch man of warre that sold us twenty negars." Thus wrote John Rolfe in a report of happenings in 1619; and thus, after much antiquarian dispute, the matter seems to stand as to the first bringing of negroes to Virginia.
"Ay," he answered, with a sigh; "the dignity of my calling must be upheld: wherefore I sit in high places, rubbing elbows with gold lace, when of the very truth the humility of my spirit is such that I would feel more at home in the servants' seats or among the negars that we bought last year."
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