Captain John Colyn Jope, born in 1580 in Merifield, England, was a Calvinist privateer whose actions left a lasting mark on early colonial history. In 1609, he acquired the White Lion, a Dutch privateer ship, and operated primarily out of the port of Vlissingen (Flushing), Netherlands. Jope held letters of marque from Maurice, Prince of Orange, which granted him legal authority to attack and plunder Spanish ships during a period of intense European rivalry in the Atlantic. His bold and relentless tactics in seizing enemy vessels earned him the nickname “Flying Dutchman,” a nod to his swift and elusive maneuvers on the high seas.
Jope’s most consequential exploit occurred in 1619 when the White Lion, in collaboration with another privateer ship, the Treasurer, commanded by Daniel Elfrith, intercepted the Portuguese slave ship São João Bautista. The Portuguese vessel was transporting African captives from Angola to Veracruz in New Spain (present-day Mexico) as part of the burgeoning transatlantic slave trade. Under the authority of Dutch letters of marque, Jope and Elfrith captured the ship and divided a portion of its human cargo, estimated to include 20 to 30 enslaved Africans. This act of piracy was typical of privateering operations, which often targeted valuable cargo, including human lives, during this era of maritime conflict.
Following the seizure, Jope sailed the White Lion to the Virginia colony, arriving at Point Comfort (modern-day Hampton Roads) in late August 1619. There, he sold the enslaved Africans to English colonists, marking a pivotal moment in the history of slavery in British North America. The transaction introduced the first documented enslaved Africans to the Virginia colony, an event often cited as a foundational moment in the development of slavery in what would become the United States.
John Rolfe, the secretary of the Virginia colony and a prominent figure known for his role in the tobacco industry, recorded the event in a letter to Edwin Sandys, treasurer of the Virginia Company of London. He wrote: “About the latter end of August, a Dutch man of War of the burden of 160 tunnes arrived at Point-Comfort, the Commander’s name Capt Jope, his Pilot for the West Indies one Mr Marmaduke, an Englishman. They met with the Treasurer in the West Indies and determined to hold consort ship hitherward, but in their passage lost one of the other.” This account highlights the collaboration between the White Lion and the Treasurer, as well as their separation during the voyage to Virginia.
The arrival of these enslaved Africans is frequently regarded as a critical juncture in American history, symbolizing the early roots of systemic slavery in the English colonies. However, historians debate its precise significance. Some argue that it represents the introduction of enslaved Africans to Virginia rather than the establishment of slavery as an institution, as the legal and social frameworks for chattel slavery developed more fully in the decades that followed. The status of these Africans in Virginia—whether they were treated as enslaved for life or as indentured servants—remains a subject of scholarly discussion, given the fluidity of labor systems in the early 17th century.
Jope’s role in this event underscores the complex interplay of privateering, European colonial ambitions, and the transatlantic slave trade. His actions, driven by profit and sanctioned by Dutch authorities, contributed to the early integration of enslaved labor into the English colonial economy. Beyond this episode, little is known about Jope’s later life or other exploits, but his command of the White Lion in 1619 remains a significant, if troubling, chapter in the history of the Americas.