1 Richardson uses various expressions—African-heritage people, Africans, Blacks, Black folks/people/peoples, and African American—albeit not interchangeably. His use of the last expression is reserved for the period after which Black people in the United States were beginning to conceive of themselves consciously as Americans. Before that era he employs “Africans” or one of the terms noted. For editing simplicity, this review will use some variant of “Black” (capitalized at the author’s insistence) or, when particularly appropriate, “African-heritage people.”

2 The narrative, as described here, is interrupted by the segue into broader matters of international law and legal process in chapters 5 and 6, though the discussion in chapter 5 takes off from events in Jamestown.