*On this date in 1518, we recall the Asiento system. This was the African slave-selling license issued by the Portuguese and Spanish crown allowing merchants the monopoly on a trade route or merchandise. Portugal owned the trading post that held Black people, and Spain arranged their routing and distribution through their control of the Caribbean. The first asiento for selling slaves was drawn up […]
learn more*Slavery in New Spain is affirmed on this date in 1521. This episode was important to the expansion of white European business into the western hemisphere. Spanish slavery began with the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans. In the 9th century, the Muslim Moorish rulers and local Jewish merchants traded in Spanish and Eastern European Christian indigenous slaves. The […]
learn more*Fort San Sebastian was built on this date in 1523. It was a Portuguese fortress to protect the monetary interest and transfer African Slaves during the Middle Passage. The facility in Shama, Ghana, is the third oldest fortification in Ghana. It was built by the Portuguese from 1520 to 1526 as a trading post and captured […]
learn more*On this date in 1526, The first African slaves in what would become the present-day United States of America arrived in Winyah Bay, South Carolina. Spaniard Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón led around six hundred settlers, including an unknown number of slaves there, in an attempt to start a colony. The attempt failed after a month […]
learn more*Rupert’s Valley is affirmed on this date in 1573. It is a village on the island of Saint Helena, an overseas territory of the United Kingdom in the South Atlantic Ocean. Many Africans of the Middle Passage were quarantined in St. Helena’s Rupert’s Valley. Thousands died of dehydration, dysentery, smallpox, and malnutrition. Some of those who survived […]
learn more*On this date in 1565, St. Augustine, Florida was founded with the first arrival of black African slaves to North America. On that date Spaniard Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles came ashore and named a stretch of land near the inlet in honor of Augustine, a saint of the Roman Catholic Church.
learn more*The One-Drop Rule (ODR) is referenced on this date in 1565 in St. Augustine, Florida. Once an American spoken phrase, the one-drop rule morphed into a legal term used to separate white citizens from all others. It holds that a person with any trace of Black African ancestry (however small or invisible) cannot be considered […]
learn more*Canadian Slavery of African’s is affirmed on this date circa 1600. The registered baptism of Olivier Le Jeune occurred on this date in 1633 in Quebec.
learn more*Slavery in the British and French West Indies is remembered on this date in 1600 with a brief article. This refers to its practice in the parts of the Caribbean dominated by France or the British Empire. The effects of the Middle Passage in the Caribbean, England colonized the islands of St. Kitts and Barbados […]
learn more*A brief article on Black Canadian history before America’s Civil Rights movement is recognized on this date.
learn more*Black history in Ireland is celebrated on this date in 1600. Segments of the Irish people were involved with the Middle Passage between 1660 and 1815. Librarian Liam Hogan has described how Irish merchants profited from the trade, mostly indirectly as provisioners. For example, William Ronan worked for the Royal African Company with more direct involvement. He became chairman of the […]
learn more*The White Lion slave ship is affirmed on this date in 1604. This was an English pirate operating under a Dutch letter of marque during the middle passage. The ship brought the first Africans to the English colony of Virginia in 1619, a year before the arrival of the Mayflower in New England. Though the African captives were sold as […]
learn more*The Tragedy of Othello was first performed on this date in 1604. This is one of the first stage classics featuring a Black lead character. Termed The Moor of Venice, more commonly known simply as Othello, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare written around 1603. The first performance occurred at Whitehall Palace with Shakespeare’s friend Richard Burbage […]
learn more*The Palmares community in 1605 is celebrated on this date. This was a Brazilian settlement of runaway and freeborn African slaves.
learn more*On this date in 1606, the first recorded birth of a child of African decent in the continental United States occurred. This was is in the Cathedral Parish Archives in St. Augustine, Florida, thirteen years before enslaved Africans were first brought to the English colony at Jamestown in 1619.
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