Old Point Comfort is a point of land located in the independent city of Hampton, Virginia. Previously known as Point Comfort, it lies at the extreme tip of the Virginia Peninsula at the mouth of Hampton Roads in the United States. It was renamed Old Point Comfort to differentiate it from New Point Comfort 21 miles (34 km) up the Chesapeake Bay. A group of enslaved Africans was brought to colonial Virginia at this point in 1619. Today the location is home to Continental Park and Fort Monroe National Monument.
Old Point Comfort, c. 1900
Hampton is an independent city in Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the 7th-most populous city in Virginia and 204th-most populous city in the nation. Hampton is included in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, the 37th-largest in the United States, with a total population of 1,799,674 in 2020. This area, known as "America's First Region", also includes the independent cities of Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk, as well as other smaller cities, counties, and towns of Hampton Roads.
Hampton Downtown Historic District
British invade Hampton during the War of 1812
On September 17, 1861, Mrs. Mary Smith Peake taught the first classes to African American children on the grounds of what is now Hampton University at Hampton Roads in Virginia under the shade of the Emancipation Oak.
The ruins of Hampton in 1862
