The first Africans who arrived in Virginia were not slaves in 1619, but it is not accurate to say that >They were indentured servants; although all the material for the Jamestown 2007 400th anniversary emphasizes this. See, for example, the Official Website of the Jamestown 400th http://www.jamestown2007.org/kids.cfm Schoolchildren are asked to use their knowledge of Jamestown history to complete the following statement: "The first documented Africans arrived in Jamestown as... A) indentured servants, B) investors, C) peasants D) slaves. There are no indications whatsoever that the African prisoners of war or victims of piracy had anything resembling an "indenture", which is a legally binding contract between two parties that specifies legal obligations and specific terms, detailing the rights and responsibilities of each. The Africans may indeed have been treated as were other indentured servants - and certainly some worked off the equivalent of a ‘term of indenture’ - but to the best of my knowledge, there is no evidence that the Virginia Africans possessed any legal document nor did they have assured access to the courts. White indentured servants occasionally described themselves as “slaves”, but did have access to the courts. To call the Africans "indentured servants" is therefore wishful thinking, not history. There are other inaccuracies in the simple anniversary quiz for schoolchildren that reflect popular cultural perceptions and American myth, rather than any historical research. For example, in answer to the question: “Who established the first English settlement: Christopher Columbus, John Smith, Christopher Newport or John Cabot?” the desired answer is naturally John Smith. Yet a stronger case can be made for Newport. Even the endlessly self-promoting Smith argued that he “saved” the colony, not that he alone deserved credit for “establishing” it; Smith called Bartholomew Gosnold as “the prime mover.” It is not surprising that school children are confused about American history when the Library of Congress Learning Page http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/colonial/jamestwn/jamestwn.html instructs us that the relevant American “documents were written in Middle English” (for the generally accepted notion that the use of Middle English went out in the fifteenth century, see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_English) Emily Rose New Hall, Cambridge To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html