There’s evidence of an Armenian on the Virginia coast as early as 1618-1619, at least a years before the landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth. He was called Martin the Armenian. Around the same time, Capt. John Smith brought a number of foreigners, among them many Armenians, who were, according to Smith’s report, preferred over the “vagabond gentlemen English colonists wearing silk and shunning work.” In Smith’s accounts, the Armenians were hard workers and were skilled in the manufacture of pitch, tar, glass, beads and soap ash, which the English colonists used as currency in trading with the Indians.

There’s evidence of an Armenian on the Virginia coast as early as 1618-1619, at least a years before the landing of the Pilgrims in Plymouth. He was called Martin the Armenian. Around the same time, Capt. John Smith brought a number of foreigners, among them many Armenians, who were, according to Smith’s report, preferred over the “vagabond gentlemen English colonists wearing silk and shunning work.” In Smith’s accounts, the Armenians were hard workers and were skilled in the manufacture of pitch, tar, glass, beads and soap ash, which the English colonists used as currency in trading with the Indians.