The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed | An Online Reference Guide to African American History by Professor Quintard Taylor, University of Washington

1492 Christopher Columbus makes his first voyage to the New World opening a vast new empire for plantation slavery. 01-01

1494 The first Africans arrive in Hispaniola with Christopher Columbus. They are free persons. 01-01

1501 The Spanish king allows the introduction of enslaved Africans into Spains American colonies. 01-01

1511 The first enslaved Africans arrive in Hispaniola. 01-01

1513 Thirty Africans accompany Vasco Nunez de Balboa on his trip to the Pacific Ocean. 01-01

1517 Bishop Bartolome de Las Casas petitions Spain to allow the importation of twelve enslaved Africans for each household immigrating to Americas Spanish colonies. De Las Casas later regrets his actions and becomes an opponent of slavery. 01-01

1518 King Charles I of Spain grants the first licenses to import enslaved Africans to the Americas. 01-01

1518 The first shipload of enslaved Africans directly from Africa arrives in the West Indies. Prior to this time, Africans were brought first to Europe. 01-01

1519 Hernan Cortez begins conquest of the Aztec Empire. 01-01

1520s Enslaved Africans are used as laborers in Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico. 01-01

1522 African slaves stage a rebellion in Hispaniola. This is the first slave uprising in the New World. 01-01

1526 Spanish colonists led by Lucas Vasquez de Ayllon build the community of San Miguel de Guadape in what is now Georgia. They bring along enslaved Africans, considered to be the first in the present-day United States. These Africans flee the colony, however, and make their homes with local Indians. After Ayllons death, the remaining Spaniards relocate to Hispaniola. 01-01

1527-1539 Esteban, a Moroccan-born Muslim slave, explores what is now the Southwestern United States. 01-01

1540 An African from Hernando de Sotos Expedition into the Lower Mississippi River valley decides to

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Congress bans the slave trade

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