# Were there any American freedmen who were born in Africa?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-american-freedmen-who-were-born-in-africa/643906>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 13, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-american-freedmen-who-were-born-in-africa/643906 "2012-12-13T05:52:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
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**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-american-freedmen-who-were-born-in-africa/643906/1 "2012-12-13T05:52:40Z")

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Did anyone who made the middle passage survive to live as a freeman in the United States? Or were all black freemen born as slaves in North America?

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**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-american-freedmen-who-were-born-in-africa/643906/2 "2012-12-13T15:13:44Z")

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Wiki (in [this article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States)) says yes:

> [@](#):
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> The first 19 or so blacks arrived ashore near Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, brought by Dutch traders who had seized them from a captured Spanish slave ship. The Spanish usually baptized slaves in Africa before embarking them and English law considered baptized Christians exempt from slavery, so these Blacks joined about 1,000 English indentured servants already in the colony. Some achieved freedom, owned land, and one later owned the American Colonies’ first true slave.

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**Author:** ![Blakeyrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blakeyrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blakeyrat)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-there-any-american-freedmen-who-were-born-in-africa/643906/3 "2012-12-13T19:33:09Z")

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> [@The\_Hamster\_King](#):
>
> Did anyone who made the middle passage survive to live as a freeman in the United States? Or were all black freemen born as slaves in North America?

When you say “freeman” are you referring _only_ to those freed after the Emancipation Proclamation? Meaning, is the real question, “were any slaves freed during the Civil War born in Africa?”

The answer is yes, the US officially outlawed the slave trade in 1808. But take a look at the story of the [Wanderer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wanderer_(slave_ship)). It brought a “cargo” of 409 slaves to the US in 1858. The captain was prosecuted, but not convicted.