4

[Top left margin: ( Historical)?] Our interest in recording the
[left margin: Distance for America] visual achievements of persons of African
ancestry in the United States is only
[crossed out: one] a small part of a story which
[left margin : Disance of] has not been fully documented by
[left margin: Dealing with slave art] written history. Indeed, it would
[left margin : be] speculation to place [crossed out: upon] within [crossed out: the]
proper perspective dated achievements that
go beyond the year 1619 when black
slaves and indentured servants were
[left margin : first] brought into the Virginia mainland
and declared property of new world
citizens. However speculative it may
seem, there is an oral tradition
among [crossed out: native American and] Guinea
Coast Africans that is backed with native American stories [over written :as] that their Black ancestors
[above written: settled] scattered beyond the "waters of the
setting sun" long before Columbus
set sail for the East Indies by
way of this land we now call
the Americans. Tales of wealth and
war [above written: that have come to us from native American populations in present day Mexico, Central and South Americans must now be looked upon us positive existance of African travels & (?) explorations in a distant and [crossed out: denial] glorious American past.]associated with black people
from the "land of the waters" is without
a doubt certain reference to some form
of black immigration to the American
continents prior to the time of Europeon
Conquest. [crossed out: I] One cannot deny the significance
of recent [crossed out: scientific] archeological
findings in Venezuala(?) where burial
cites with the remains of African