Fort Monroe National Monument has a rich and often overlooked history, but the site is in the spotlight this year to share its story and start a deeper conversation about race in America.

The site is not too far away from Suffolk, in Hampton at Old Point Comfort on the southern tip of the Virginia Peninsula. It’s where the first Africans brought to English North America arrived 400 years ago, and the quadricentennial will be commemorated Aug. 23-25. In 1619, all of that area all the way to present-day Jamestown would have been considered Jamestown.

Site Superintendent Terry Brown said all he needs to do to soak in the significance of where he works is to step out of his office. He also cautioned against calling it a celebration.

“There are moments where we can celebrate the great achievements of black and brown people,” Brown said. “but this anniversary is really a commemoration. When I walk around that space, I’m reminded of the arc of history. Just not too far from my office is where 20 and odd Africans came ashore, and it’s also the same place where they gained their freedom … years later.”

Brown said when he looks at Fort Monroe, he sees America.

“My office is the old location of Robert E. Lee’s old home,” Brown said. “Jefferson Davis was here; he was imprisoned here. Edgar Allan Poe read poetry out in the hotel. Harriet Tubman was here, Frederick Douglass. It’s a true example of America. It has classism, it has racism, it has all these -isms in it.

“But what it really shows is that this whole idea that, ‘we the people in order to form a more perfect union,’ really starts, whether we know it or not, it starts when people like those Africans show up at the shores of Fort Monroe — in those days they called it (Old) Point Comfort.”

Brown said that in order to appreciate what will take place this August, people have to take a look at how the country evolved, along with the trials and tribulations of those who were living here, and their contributions to the United States.

Kathy Spangler, executive director of Virginia’s 2019 Commemoration, said Fort Monroe has a unique story to tell and is an under-represented place. As part of the commemoration, Fort Monroe’s former Coast Artillery School Library is being renovated and will open in August as the Fort Monroe Visitor and Education Center, which will share the story of the first enslaved Africans and the culmination of 242 years of slavery as the first former slaves arrived at Fort Monroe to receive their freedom.

“We think it is incredibly impactful to bring to light for all Americans to understand that this is where the African-American experience began,” Spangler said.

She said the visitor and education center will be a first step to interpret the Africans’ arrival at Fort Monroe.

“The enhancement and uncovering of the narrative of the stories — that’s the catalyst we’re hoping to provide in the commemorative year,” Spangler said.

The story of how the first Africans reached Point Comfort in 1619 is a little vague, Brown said, though there’s a sense that when they were captured in their village home in Dungo, in Angola, they were put on a slave ship that made its way to the Gulf of Mexico and was attacked.

The goods and people from that ship were then put on two ships — the Treasurer and the White Lion — and they made it to Point Comfort. The White Lion arrived first and unloaded “20 and odd” Africans at Point Comfort, Brown said, while he believes the Treasurer never unloaded and turned back to the Caribbean to take care of legal issues and came to Jamestown a year later, bringing with it more Africans.

He said when Africans began to show up at Old Point Comfort, some had freedom and others didn’t. He said for a period of time, there was an odd definition of indentured servitude. Colonists were aware of slavery, as it had been in existence for hundreds of years, but there was no government set up until about 1640 or 1641, he said, and that’s when things changed.

“One person may say they were indentured servants, another may say they were enslaved,” Brown said. “And if you weren’t sitting there watching it, you have no real idea. You could make a good sense that they were chained up when they were on the ship and when they got off they were in that condition, but over a period of time it evolved into a loose kind of definition of that.”

Either way, he said, they were not free.

Over time, Brown noted that blacks and whites collaborated together, and were just figuring out how to eat and live. He said it was only later when whites noticed how the Caribbean was thriving with slaves that slavery came into prominence.

Brown said more than any time in history, now is the perfect time to have a discussion on race, slavery and the contributions that those Africans had on American society — bringing with them their words, values and skills such as making rice, cotton and tobacco.

“The one thing I’m well aware of after doing this for 27 years, is that, while I’m in (my National Park Service) uniform, I can put people in safe places to have a conversation,” Brown said.

In this way, Brown hopes the events in August can educate a larger audience and tell a story that he said hasn’t gotten a lot of attention.

“The attention we get, I welcome it,” Brown said. “I keep thinking of the word ‘hope.’ I still think there’s hope in this country for reconciliation. It really opens up the opportunity for a more perfect union.”