The First Enslaved Africans in America

The first Black people brought to America by Europeans were slaves and at least one free man on ships, part of <a href="https://dunnhistory.com/blacks-in-the-age-of-discovery/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Ponce de Leon's expedition in 1513</a>. The free man, <a href="https://www.hiddenhispanicheritage.com/timeline-1513---the-first-african-american-8203was-a-spanish-conquistador.html" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Juan Garrido</a>, was a former slave who'd received his freedom while in Spain. Garrido became a Spanish conquistador and later introduced wheat to the New World in Mexico after helping <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hern%C3%A1n_Cort%C3%A9s" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Hernan Cortez</a> conquer the Aztecs. Garrido was the exception to the rule; part of Ponce de Leon's mission was to capture and trade enslaved people, as Spain had become dependent on slaves in the New World for mining and agriculture. Ponce de Leon pioneered the transatlantic slave trade removing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta%C3%ADno" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Taino people</a> from the Caribbean Islands to Spain. This became the framework for the transatlantic trade of Africans, which led to millions of Africans being sent to North America, South America, and the West Indies. There's a whole other story about the Spanish introduction of European diseases to the indigenous people of two continents and the harsh treatment of the natives enslaved. Bernal Diaz del Castillo's book, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/History-Conquest-Spain-Hackett-Classics/dp/160384290X" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">The True History of the Conquest of New Spain</a>, describes much of what happened in Central America. <a href="https://zora.medium.com/the-first-enslaved-africans-in-america-8aa356011fcb">Learn More</a>