On Sunday, April 13th, the city of Darien, GA, in McIntosh County, unveiled a historic marker to acknowledge the first recorded arrival in 1526 of a shipment of captive Africans to the U.S. mainland. The event was free and open to the public and was held as part of the annual Blessing of the Fleet event at the Darien Waterfront Park, 105 Fort King George Drive in Darien. The Middle Passage Ceremonies and Port Markers Project (MPCPMP), a national non-profit whose mission is to honor African ancestors who were transported during the more than 350 years of the trans-Atlantic human trade provided in-depth research and funding and negotiated with the city of Darien, that borders Sapelo Sound, to install the marker.
The history of captive Africans in Georgia predates by 93 years the 1619 arrival of Africans to the English colony of Virginia. Arriving on the southeastern coast of North America with 600 colonists, approximately 100 enslaved African men were transported with them by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon to establish the Spanish settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape off the Georgia coast at Sapelo Sound. It failed after two months due to various factors, among them: loss of provisions, unseasonably cold weather, illness and death (including Ayllon), dissent among the surviving colonists, and hostilities from the native people and the Africans. This alliance between the “first” (Indigenous) and the “forced” (Africans) reflects a pattern of resistance, rebellion, and collaboration against enslavement and loss of freedom that continued over centuries. Located in the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, Sapelo Sound is a UNESCO Routes of Enslaved Peoples Project Site of Memory and Heritage and an International Coalition Site of Conscience.
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