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US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveled to Ghana, West Africa, to attend events marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans. America.
Why is the date significant?
In 1619, a ship arrived in an English colony in the current US state of Virginia, carrying about 20 captured Africans.
This is the first time that enslaved Africans have arrived in an area that was to become part of the United States.
They had been seized by British pirates off the coast of Mexico, on a Portuguese slave ship.
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The conditions on board slave ships were brutal
The Portuguese ship was carrying about 350 Africans, caught in present-day Angola.
Many died during the trip because of the terrible conditions they had endured.
The English pirates then sold the Africans they seized to settlers in Virginia.
- Discovery of the last survivor of American slave ships
- Should black Americans get compensation for slavery?
A historic debate took place on what happened to them once they were sold.
But the formal systems of slavery and racial separation have actually become established in recent years, as the number of Africans brought to America increased.
Were they the first slaves of the Americas?
Some experts believe that we should not exaggerate the importance of 1619 because at that time, Africans were already used in the tobacco plantations of the British colony of Bermuda.
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Ghana dungeons guarded slaves before their expedition across the Atlantic
It is also believed that English and Spanish maritime adventurers shipped Africans in the 16th century to North and South America.
And Portuguese traders had brought slaves to his settlements since the 15th century.
How is this birthday marked?
The US Congress has set up a special commission to mark the 400 years of African-American history this year.
Ms. Pelosi's delegation to Ghana includes black members of Congress.
And Ghana has declared 2019 Year of Return, with programs aimed at encouraging people of African descent to surrender and even to settle.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, was in Jamestown, Virginia, this week to mark another anniversary – 400 years since the birth of representative democracy in the Western Hemisphere.
However, he noted in a speech that it was also 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia.
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