Juneteenth at Jamestown Settlement (FREE ADMISSION)
June 19 @ 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Juneteenth at Jamestown Settlement
Admission to Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is free on June 19, the official Juneteenth holiday.
Background on Juneteenth:
Juneteenth is rooted in Galveston, Texas, where in June 1865, word of the Emancipation Proclamation was finally shared with some of the last enslaved people to hear they had been freed. However, the Proclamation’s first reading in a Southern state was on the Virginia Peninsula, in the city of Hampton in 1863. In the preceding centuries, enslaved people sought freedom through the courts, military service and other forms of self-emancipation.
Juneteenth at Jamestown Settlement
Juneteenth celebrates liberation from a system of slavery with origins in Jamestown, Va. – as the place where the first recorded Africans in 1619 were brought after landing at Old Point Comfort and where the first slave laws enacted in the mid-17th century impacted the lives and status of Africans and their descendants.
Daily 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., museum guests can explore African and African American experiences in 17th-century Virginia through expansive gallery exhibits, dramatic films and engaging interactives that share the story of Virginia Indian, English and West Central African cultures.
Using period artifacts and innovative technology, exhibits share historical accounts of the first documented Africans taken from their homeland in Ndongo (Angola) in 1619 to life in the Virginia colony and the evolution of a new African American culture. The “From Africa to Virginia” multimedia presentation chronicles African encounters with Europeans, impact on African culture and the development of the transatlantic slave trade.
The documentary film, “1607: A Nation Takes Root,” is shown every 30 minutes in Presentation Hall. The film traces the evolution of the Virginia Company that sponsored the Jamestown colony, examines the relationship between the English colonists and Powhatan Indians, and chronicles the arrival of the first recorded Africans in 1619 – including the story of Angelo, one of the first African women named in Jamestown’s historical record.
Admission to Jamestown Settlement and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown is free on June 19, the official Juneteenth holiday.
Join us for an immersive journey through history! #Juneteenth #JamestownHistory #AfricanAmericanHeritage #CelebrateFreedom
