Birth of Black America II

The people brought to Jamestown in 1619 from Angola, having been taken off a slave ship by a pirate ship, apparently all ended up free one way or another, although some of their descendants remained enslaved. The English settlers over the next eight or nine decades gradually made it harder for black people to gain freedom, although slavery did not reach its full legal status until 1705.

I do not fully understand this whole process, even after finishing the book. The authour writes only what can be documented, and sometimes people's motives are not clear from the written records. I can only say that the book is well worth reading, even if, like a lot of history, it is often depressing. The hope that the Angolan people in Virginia might have developed was gradually taken away by changes in laws and customs during the course of the 1600's.