In 1564 Lope Martin, an Afro-Portuguese mariner, navigated the first round-trip voyage in the Pacific Ocean from Mexico to the Philippines and back to Mexico during the sixteenth-century Age of Exploration. Details about Martin’s parents or his childhood as a mulatto growing up in Lagos, … Read MoreLope Martin (1520?-?)
The first Black settlers in what is now the western United States were Spanish speakers who came north from what is now central Mexico. Their roots there began in 1519, when Black men were among the Spanish conquistadores who invaded and destroyed the Aztec Empire, … Read MoreNorth from Mexico: The First Black Settlers in the U.S. West
San Miguel de Gualdape is a former Spanish colony founded in 1526 by Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon. It was the third settlement in North America north of Mexico. In the early 1500s, Spaniards were conducting expeditions to the area now known as South Carolina and … Read MoreSan Miguel de Gualdape Slave Rebellion (1526)
The 1521 Santo Domingo Slave Revolt occurred in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola during that year’s Christmas festivities. It is the earliest recorded slave revolt in the Americas. Just days after the revolt occurred, a new set of laws … Read MoreThe 1521 Santo Domingo Slave Revolt
Few people realize that the percentage of people of African ancestry in the South American nation of Colombia (7%) is slightly more than half the percentage of people of African ancestry in the United States (13%). Yet we know even less about the origins of … Read MoreLadinos and Bozales: A Brief Early History of Africans in Colombia: 1500-1800
Miguel I de Buría, also known as King Miguel and Miguel the Black, was a formerly enslaved man from San Juan, Puerto Rico who ruled as the King of Buría in the modern-day state of Lara, Venezuela from 1552 to 1555. He is best known … Read MoreMiguel I de Buría (1510-1555)
Many particulars regarding the birth, career, and death of the man of African origin known as Yasuke are cloaked in mystery. The few Portuguese and Japanese sources that mention his brief presence in Japan and as a Samurai omit essential details, leaving him a shadowy … Read MoreYasuke (ca. 1555-?)
Spanish Conquistadors in Chile “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Juan Beltrán was the illegitimate mulatto son of Juan Beltrán de Magaña and a well-known black conquistadore of Villarica, Chile. Because of the chaos of the region, the fact that his mother was indigenous (likely an Araucanian … Read MoreJuan Beltrán (? — ?)
“Image Ownership: Public Domain” Juan García was one of the best known black auxiliaries aiding Francisco Pizarro in the conquest of Peru between 1532 and 1542. He was born free near Jaraicejo, Spain in 1495, most likely of African and Spanish descent, although he was … Read MoreJuan Garcia (1495?- ? )
Map of Yucatan “Image Ownership: Public Domain” Sebastián Toral was one of the earliest black conquistadores in the New World. He helped the Spanish to conquer the southern Mexican state of Yucatán in the 1530s and 1540s. Although historians do not know much information about … Read MoreSebastián Toral (? — ?)
