While 1619 is often thought to mark the date of arrival of the first enslaved Africans on Virginia soil, the history is a little bit more complicated than that, according to Dr. Jonathan Stubbs.

Stubbs, a Gloucester native and professor at the T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, was the featured speaker at Sunday afternoon’s annual Black History Month program at Union Zion Baptist Church in Ware Neck.

Those first Africans who landed at Old Point Comfort in Hampton weren’t slaves, he said, but rather indentured servants, committed to serving a set number of years with the promise of freedom after that period of service was over. But “early on in Virginia, the law began to change,” he said.

Just over two decades later, a case began to codify the peculiar institution. In 1640, an African indentured servant named John Punch, and two others (a Scotsman and a Dutchman) ran away from their employer, were captured and brought back to face punishment. While the two Eu...