Point Comfort

Point Comfort Point Comfort--it's about all of us. In 1607, English travelers aboard the Susan Constant came upon a stretch of sea that was steady and calm.

They named the spot “Point Comfort.” The term comfort means “with strength.”

A few years later, captured Angolas were brought by the White Lion ship, in 1619, to the same spot—to historic Fort Monroe, in Hampton, VA. Those enslaved African people provided uncompensated labor that built the Virginia colony. Today, the Chesapeake Bay waterway remains a historic landmark. The site of OpSail and rega

ttas. Nearby, at Hampton University, the Emancipation Oak remains. Its heavy branches a symbolic reminder of freedom for escaping African American people named contraband by the Union army in 1861. Under that tree, during the civil war, Mary Smith Peake taught African children and adults to read. It was also the site of the first southern reading of President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The original Point Comfort lighthouse has been lost to time. A replica can be found at Buckroe Beach.

2007 marked the 400th anniversary of Hampton. 2019 was a national observance of the arrival of those enslaved West African people, 400 years ago. GL Harris, founder
Point Comfort

Hampton…then and now.🕊️
05/31/2026

Hampton…then and now.🕊️

Today in Hampton History
1861 - Confederate sympathizers - most of the town’s white residents - abandon Hampton.

Earlier in the day, U.S. troops had marched from Fort Monroe to take up positions at Newport News Point. In Hampton, rumors spread that Federal forces were planning to attack and occupy the town. Confederate officers gave two hours for those wishing to evacuate to gather belongings before destroying bridges over Hampton River and Newmarket Creek.

Free Black residents and a few white residents loyal to the United States remained in the town, unafraid of the Union Army presence at Fort Monroe. Many enslaved Americans also remained behind, resisting efforts of enslavers to take them further into Confederate territory.

Plan from Fortress Monroe to Big Bethel Va. : showing Union and Rebel position April 1st 1862.Sneden, Robert Knox, 1832-1918.
https://www.loc.gov/item/gvhs01.vhs00071/

https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/fort_monroe_during_the_civil_war

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Hampton, VA

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