# data[].attributes.headline
The First American Slave came from Virginia

# data[].attributes.subject
The First American Slave came from Virginia

# data[].attributes.body
The Story of John Punch

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
John Punch

John Punch, James Gregory, and a man named Victor were all indentured servants contracted to Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn. These three men each performed similar tasks as slaves and each also felt so exploited he was willing to take unimaginable risks to pursue freedom. John, James, and Victor ran away and were captured within days.

Though fleeing similar circumstances, the fates of the runaways differed under the court's aegis. A judge sentenced all three to whippings. He then added four years to the indenture terms of James and Victor, both white Europeans. John, a black man, alone he condemned to lifelong servitude.

John Punch is one of the first servants on record to be sentenced to slavery on the grounds of race. However, he was neither the first nor the last black man to flee from oppressive bondage. Despite the development of harsh fugitive slave laws in the next century, running away remained one of the most common strategies for escaping slavery.

To read a transcript of the original court decision on Gywn's case against Punch and his companions, go to the library and check out H.R. McILwaine's MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL AND GENERAL COURT OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA, 1622-1632, 1670-1676 (Library of VA, 2nd ed. 1979)

Societies of Slaves
Sometimes, runaway slaves like John Punch joined other escaped slaves to form colonies of their own, banding together to defend themselves and their freedom. Slaves who were members of these communities are known as maroons. To learn more about this form of slave resistance, read MAROON SOCIETIES: REBEL SLAVE COMMUNITIES IN THE AMERICAS by Richard Price (Johns Hopkins UP, 1996)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Slavery and the Making of America . The Slave Experience: Responses to Enslavement | PBS

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
John Punch John Punch, James Gregory, and a man named Victor were all indentured servants contracted to Virginia planter Hugh Gwyn. These three men each performed similar tasks as slaves and each also felt so exploited he was willing to take unimaginable risks to pursue freedom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Scientists said Wednesday that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism.

For years, there have been tales of the starving English settlers resorting to eating dogs, mice, snakes and shoe leather at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America. There were also written accounts of settlers eating their own dead, but archaeologists had been skeptical of those stories.

But now, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and archaeologists from Jamestown are announcing the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl that show clear signs that she was cannibalized. Evidence indicates clumsy chops to the body and head, and it appears the girl was already dead at the time.

Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley said the human remains date back to a deadly winter known as the "starving time" in Jamestown from 1609 to 1610. Hundreds of colonists died during the period. Scientists have said the settlers likely arrived during the worst drought in 800 years, bringing a severe famine for the 6,000 people who lived at Jamestown between 1607 and 1625.

The historical record is chilling. Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a "world of miseries," that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. "Nothing was spared to maintain life," he wrote.

In one case, a man killed, "salted," and began eating his pregnant wife. Both Percy and Capt. John Smith, the colony's most famous leader, documented the account in their writings. The man was later executed.

"One amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was known, for which he was executed, as he well deserved," Smith wrote. "Now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonado'd (barbecued), I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of."

Archaeologists at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia were somewhat skeptical of the stories of cannibalism in the past because there was no solid proof, until now.

"Historians have questioned, well did it happen or not happen?" Owsley said. "And this is very convincing evidence that it did."

Owsley has been working with William Kelso, the chief archaeologist at Jamestown, since their first burial discovery in 1996.

The remains of the 14-year-old girl discovered in the summer of 2012 marks the fourth burial of human remains uncovered at Jamestown. Her remains were found in a cellar at the site that had been filled with trash, including bones of animals that had been consumed, according to archaeologists.

Owsley, who has also done forensic analysis for police investigations, analyzed the girl's remains and how the body had been dismembered, including chops to the front and back of the head. The girl was likely already dead at the time. There was a cultural stigma against killing someone for food, Owsley said.

But it was clear to him immediately that there were signs of cannibalism.

"It is the evidence found on those bones that put it within the context of this time period," he said. "This does represent a clear case of dismemberment of the body and removing of tissues for consumption."

It was the work of someone not skilled at butchering, Owsley said. There was a sense of desperation.

The bones show a bizarre attempt to open the skull. Animal brains and facial tissue would be considered accepted and desirable meat in the 17th century, Owsley said.

The human remains will be placed on display at Jamestown to explain the "starving time" and the horrid conditions early settlers faced. At the Smithsonian, curators will display a digital reconstruction of the girl's face to explain the discovery in an exhibit about life at Jamestown.

The Smithsonian and Jamestown archaeologists are also publishing their findings in a book but decided against waiting to announce the discovery through a peer-reviewed journal.

Owsley said archaeology is helping to fill in details from a time when few records were kept - details that won't likely be found in history books.

"It provides a more personal glimpse into the lives and events that these people experienced," he said. "When you're dealing with 17th century sites like Jamestown, I think it really enhances what we know about these people."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
English colonists in Jamestown were cannibals: scientists

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Scientists said Wednesday that they have found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism. For years, there have been tales of the starving English settlers resorting to eating dogs, mice, snakes and shoe leather at Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in America.

# data[].attributes.headline
The New World: Jamestown and "The Starving Time"

# data[].attributes.subject
The New World: Jamestown and "The Starving Time"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | The New World: Jamestown and the "Starving Time"

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | The Growth of the Tobacco Trade in America

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jamestown was the first English colony to be settled in the New World. It was first established in order to aid the Virginia Company of London with their import/export business. However, it eventually became a royal colony and helped populate the Americas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learn about the historic Powhatan Indian princess Pocahontas. What did Captain John Smith write originally? How does the Disney movie compare? Great Pocahontas book list. Extensive links to Pocahontas, Powhatan, John Smith, and John Rolfe resources.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Kids learn about the biography of Pocahontas, Native American princess who helped save Captain John Smith and the settlers of Jamestown. She later married John Rolfe and moved to England.