The african slaves that arrived in virginia in 1619 came from angola a colony of portugal, the name of the portugue ship the slaves were on was the San Juan Bautista, this slave ship came from the angolan port town of Luanda. there was originally 100 africans on the ship. As the ship traveled to the new world, an english ship named the Treasurer and a dutch ship named man of war, captured the portugue ship san juan bautista and took the cargo which included the slaves, 20 were taken to virginia and the rest were sold in the west indies. prior to these 20 angolan slaves, there were already 32 africans in virginia. Some of these africans became free.