FORT MONROE, Va. — As people gather Saturday to commemorate the 405th anniversary of the first landing of enslaved Africans at Fort Monroe in Hampton, the event takes on special significance this year.
The Fort Monroe Authority, National Park Service, Project 1619, Inc. and the City of Hampton will host the annual African Landing Day commemoration and soil mixing ceremony at Fort Monroe on Saturday.
The event will begin at 10 a.m. at the future site of the African Landing Memorial, a national monument honoring the lives of enslaved Africans who were taken from the African land of Africa by English slave traders in 1619 and brought to what is now Hampton. The $9 million memorial project – a collaboration between the Tucker family, descended from the first Africans who arrived in 1619, the Fort Monroe Authority and Fort Monroe National Monument – is scheduled for completion in 2026.
Watch: The African Landing Memorial at Fort Monroe honors enslaved Africans and their descendants
The African Landing Memorial at Fort Monroe honors enslaved Africans and their descendants
As for Saturday’s soil-mixing ceremony, organizers are asking all participants to bring a small sample of soil from home or a place meaningful to their family to mix with the soil at Fort Monroe and from Angola.
“It’s emotional. It’s powerful. It resonates with me,” Wanda Tucker told News 3 anchor Jessica Larché in June about the future African Landing Memorial. “Knowing where I came from is a gift because so many African Americans can’t trace their heritage.”
During a conversation at Fort Monroe ahead of Juneteenth, Tucker said her family’s oral history, passed down for more than 400 years, indicates that they are descendants of Antony and Isabella, two of the nearly 20 enslaved Africans who arrived at Point Comfort on the privateer ship White Lion in 1619.
The Africans were abducted by European slave traders from their homeland, the African country of Angola. When they arrived at Point Comfort, they were sold to slave traders in the colony of Virginia.
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Glenn Oder, executive director of the Fort Monroe Authority, compared the monument to the Statue of Liberty or the local Grand Canyon.
“Despite all the tragedy they have experienced in their lives, the idea of holding a baby in their arms represents hope,” Oder said in June. “What represents more hope in the midst of tragedy than a new life?”
The memorial will include several sculptures by artist Brian Owens, including a depiction of Antony, Isabella and baby William. The project is expected to take five years to complete.
Events on Saturday, African Landing Day, include African drums, music, vendors and the commemorative ringing of the bell.
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Hamptons Mayor Donnie Tuck, Senator Mamie Locke and several dignitaries from Angola are expected to deliver speeches.
A press release from the City of Hampton stated: “The ceremony will begin at 10 a.m. at the future site of the African Landing Memorial near the Old Point Comfort Lighthouse and will conclude at approximately 1:30 p.m. in Continental Park.”
The press release continued: “This event site is approximately 1.2 km long and we will stop at three locations within this site. We recommend comfortable clothing and walking shoes. Following the ceremony, there will be exhibits, vendors, cultural performances and food trucks in Continental Park until 4 p.m.”
