The first Indian to set foot on the New Country did so nearly a century and a half after Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America. The earliest record of this is of an East-Indian named Tom, whose name was counted amongst the ‘headrights’ of a settlement in Jamestown, Virginia in 1635.
Columbus famously misidentified the indigenous Native Americans as ‘Indians’. The conquest of America was based in great part on the theft of these American’s lands. But ironically, it was the Asian Indians, brought in as indentured labourers, who enabled colonizers to own vast swathes of land for ‘free’.
Under the headright system, a European would receive a plot of land for free, for making the journey from the Old World to the New World and settling down. For every labourer they brought, they would also receive more land – up to 50 acres per head. George Menafie, who ‘owned’ Tony, had paid passage for as many as 24 such indentured labourers.
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