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Spanish settlers bring Africans slaves to the New World.
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Free Africans Juan Garrido and Juan Gonzalez de Leon accompony Juan Ponce De Leon in his exploration of La Florida.
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First enslaved Africans brought to North America by Lucas Vasquez de Allyon expedition; established settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in present-day Georgia; this is the first European settement in the geographic United States.
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Panfilo Narvaez attempts to settle area near Tampa Bay with 600 people, including slaves. Lack of supplies and hurricanes doom venture.
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Four survivors of the doomed Tampa Bay settlement end up in Mexico City after walking through wilderness for eight years. Estevanico, an African slave, ensures their survival by learning to communicate with natives along the way.
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Hernando de Soto explores Florida and much of the present-day southeastern United States with the aid of free and enslaved Africans.
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St Augustine, the oldest permanent city in the USA, established by Spain. It is home to over 600 people, including 50 African slaves. Some of these slaves immediately escape into the surrounding wilderness.
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Spanish government in Florida grants freedom to all runaway slaves from English colonies to the north if slaves agree to convert to Roman Catholicism.
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Hundreds of slaves from Georgia and the Carolinas escape to Florida as a result of Spanish government’s decision.
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Francisco Menendez, an escaped slave from the Carolinas, agrees to help defend Florida from the British in exchange for freedom. Establishes Fort Mose, the first free black settlement in the present-day USA, two miles north of St. Augustine.
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English invaders capture Fort Mose; blacks and Spaniards recapture it a few months later.
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Spain trades Florida to England in exchange for Havana, Cuba, which Spain had lost during the Seven Year’s War; as a result, large rice and indigo plantations pop up along the St. John’s River in East Florida; thousands of slaves are imported from Africa or brought south from other colonies.
