Blacks in the Americas

I

Introduction

Blacks in the Americas, the emigration of blacks from Europe and Africa to the Americas and their assimilation into American societies. Blacks sailed with Christopher Columbus even on his first voyage in 1492, and the earliest Spanish and Portuguese explorers were likewise accompanied by black Africans who had been born and raised on the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar). In the following four centuries millions of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa were brought to the New World (North and South America) as slaves. Today, their descendants form significant ethnic minorities in the United States and several Latin American countries, and they are the dominant element in many of the Caribbean nations. Over the centuries, black people have contributed to the cultural mix of their respective societies and thus exerted a profound influence on all facets of life in the western hemisphere.

II

Latin America and the Caribbean

The Latin American and Caribbean regions were the first areas of the Americas to be populated by African immigrants and the majority of their descendants still live in those regions.

A

Early Immigration and Slavery

Most of the earliest black immigrants to the Americas were indigenous to Spain or Portugal: men such as Pedro Alonso Niño, a navigator who accompanied Columbus on his first voyage, and the black colonists who helped Nicolás de Ovando form the first Spanish settlement on Hispaniola in 1502. The name of Nuflo de Olano appears in the records as that of a black slave present when Vasco Núñez de Balboa sighted the Pacific Ocean in 1513. Other blacks served with Hernán Cortés when he conquered Mexico (1519-1521) and with Francisco Pizarro when he marched into Peru (1532).

A

1

Iberian Blacks

Estebanico, one of the survivors of the unfortunate expedition of Pánfilo de Narváez to Florida in 1527, was a black. With three companions, he spent eight years travelling overland to Mexico City, learning several Native American languages in the process. Later, while exploring what is now New Mexico, United States, he lost his life in a dispute with the Zuñi people.

Juan Valiente, another black, led Spaniards in a series of battles between 1540 and 1546 against the Araucanian people of Chile. Although Valiente was a slave, he was rewarded with an estate near Santiago, Chile, and control of several Native American villages.

Between 1502 and 1518, Spain shipped out hundreds of Spanish-born Africans, called Ladinos, to work as labourers, especially in the mines. Opponents of their enslavement cited weak Christian faith and a penchant for escaping to the mountains or joining the Native Americans in revolt. Proponents declared that the rapid diminution of the Native American population required a constant supply of reliable labourers. Free Spaniards were reluctant to do manual labour or to remain settled (especially after the discovery of gold on the mainland), and only slave labour could assure the economic viability of the colonies.