A FAMILY’S STORY BECOMES A MONUMENT

At Fort Monroe, Va., Antony, Isabella and their son William Tucker are memorialized in a powerful new sculpture—giving Hampton Roads a permanent place to tell the story that began in America in 1619.

By New Journal and Guide Staff

HAMPTON, Va.
More than four centuries after a ship carrying captive Africans sailed into Point Comfort (now Fort Monroe, Va.), a family whose story began in bondage now stands in bronze on the Virginia shoreline where their lives—and the history of Black America—were forever changed.

On Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026, descendants, historians, public officials, community leaders and visitors gathered at Fort Monroe for the National Ceremony of Remembrance and Renewal, marked by the unveiling of the first major sculptural element of the African Landing Memorial. The memorial commemorates the site of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to America in 1619.

At the center of the newly unveiled sculpture are Antony, Isabella and their son William, whose story has become one of the most enduring links to the first documented enslaved Africans in America. William, the son of Antony and Isabella, was the first recorded child of African descent born and baptized in the English colonies in 1624.

The Saturday ceremony marked the culmination of African Landing Commemoration Week Aug. 22–29, 2026 hosted annually by Fort Monroe. Throughout the week, programs explored themes of memory, resilience, descendant engagement, cultural connection, and the long arc of freedom — from the 1619 landing to the 1861 Contraband Decision and beyond. The sculpture places Hampton Roads at the center of a national conversation about slavery, freedom, family, African American identity and the meaning of America’s beginnings.

The ceremony included a procession of descendants to the memorial site and began at 11 a.m.

The sculpture by artist Brian R. Owens is inspired by the documented story of Antony and Isabella and their son William. It depicts a man and woman with a child in their arms.

There are no known portraits of the family.

So the sculpture is not intended to be a literal likeness. Instead, it is an artistic interpretation informed by historical research and consultation.

That distinction matters.

The sculpture represents Antony, Isabella and William—but it also represents the countless Africans whose names, faces and individual stories have been lost to history.

The Virginia 250 Commission describes the memorial as honoring both those whose names are known and those whose names remain unknown, as well as the generations who came after them.

Dr. Karsonya “Kaye” Wise Whitehead, president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, captured the significance of the moment.

“Memory becomes an act of responsibility,” she said.

The responsibility, she explained, is to remember not merely a date or an event, but people—with names, families, cultures, dreams and histories.

“More than four centuries later, we are here. We are still here,” Whitehead said.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger, who participated in the ceremony, described the commemoration as a responsibility for Virginians.

That responsibility is particularly significant because Point Comfort represents one of the earliest documented moments in the development of racial slavery in English North America.

But Fort Monroe’s history does not end with 1619.

Nearly 250 years later, the site became known as “Freedom’s Fortress” during the Civil War. In 1861, U.S. Gen. Benjamin Butler’s decision to classify escaped enslaved people who reached Union lines as “contraband of war” helped make Fort Monroe a place of refuge for thousands seeking freedom.

The same landscape therefore contains two profoundly different chapters of African American history: The beginning of an American system of racial slavery—and a place where enslaved people later sought freedom.

That extraordinary historical arc gives Fort Monroe a significance far beyond Hampton Roads.

The National Park Service describes the African Landing Memorial as a place where visitors can confront the history that helped shape the nation and engage in conversations about America’s beginnings. The memorial site has also been designated a UNESCO Site of Memory associated with the Slave Route Project.

The 6-foot tall sculpture recently unveiled is only the beginning.

The African Landing Memorial which was dedicated on April 24, 2026 ultimately will consist of three major artistic elements.

The first is The Figures—the sculpture of Antony, Isabella, holding the baby William.

The second, The Arc, is expected later in 2026. Rising vertically toward the sky, it is intended to symbolize hope and the future.

The third element, The Relief, is expected in 2028. The 25-foot-wide installation will tell a much broader story, beginning with life in West Central Africa and continuing through capture, the forced Atlantic crossing, arrival at Point Comfort and the Africans’ early years in Virginia.

Together, the three elements are designed to move visitors beyond a single date in history and toward an understanding of the human beings and generations connected to that moment.

The official memorial project describes the three elements as expressing the human experience, struggle and hope, and the fuller story of the African Landing.

The ceremony included a procession of descendants to the memorial site before the 11 a.m. unveiling.

Prominent among the procession were members of the Tucker Family whose collective voice connects today’s Hampton Roads community and beyond to the Tucker family story.  At the unveiling, Dr. Wanda Tucker spoke of the forced arrival of her ancestors—and of the extraordinary fact that their descendants are still here.

“They didn’t come by choice,” Tucker said of the Africans who arrived aboard the White Lion. “They were here by force. But what they did after they got here is what matters. And that’s how I’m still here.”

Others in the Tucker Family in attendance were Vincent Tucker, Walter Jones, Verrandall Tucker, Dr. Felicia Tucker-Lively and William Floyd Tucker. The Family has incorporated The William Tucker 1624 Society, a nonprofit named after William, the son of Antony and Isabella. The Society works to preserve and share this important history through educational programs, commemorative events, and scholarship opportunities.

The unveiling was a powerful reversal of history.

People whose ancestors arrived without choice returned generations later to a place where their family’s history is now being publicly remembered.

Fort Monroe – African Landing Memorial