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1441
Portuguese Sailors Enslaved Berbers
Antam Gonçalvez, a Portuguese ship captain, had initially arrived in West Africa to get cargo in 1441, and held a raid with his crewmates to also capture captives from the Berber population to bring back to the ruler of Portugal, Prince Henry. The group of Portuguese sailors only ended up capturing less than a dozen people, but it opened a path to enslave more people from that area in the future. This journey is sometimes considered the beginning of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. -
1448
Portugal Made Slave Trade Agreements with Moorish and African Chiefs
João Fernandes went to Río de Oro and when a Moorish trader wanted to use his ship, he stayed with a Moorish family. He was able to see where the nomads were able to obtain their slaves, and was able to inform Prince Henry about it. As a result of this, rather than traveling to West Africa, the Portuguese leadership set up trade agreements through the Moorish and African chiefs who raided tribes to gain captives to sell into slavery. -
1481
Portugal Slave Trade at Elmina
In 1481, Portugal set up a trading outpost in Elmina in Ghana, and it was heavily guarded in order to give security from attacks from Europeans who might have tried to steal cargo. However, there were not many attacks from inland. This was a site to export enslaved people for hundreds of years. -
1500
Cabral's Voyage
Pedro Cabral was the first Portuguese navigator to go to Brazil, to the area from the Treaty of Tordesillas. He voyaged to Brazil before going to India shortly after. This helped establish a European presence in Brazil and led to the establishment of plantation agriculture in the region in the future. -
1502
Hispaniola Slave Trade
Nicolas Ovando oversaw the first slave trade from Spain to Hispaniola and was in charge of converting people to Christianity and the slave trade to the New World. This was a major site to transport enslaved people to the Indies and the New World. -
1525
First Direct Voyage to Hispaniola
In 1525, there was the first direct voyage directly from Africa to Hispaniola. This made the slave trade more efficient to the Americas, and enslaved people were sent to the Americas to perform not only plantation labor but work in mines and different labor occupations. -
1549
New Laws Established
Due to consistent protests, King Charles V enacted the New Laws of the Indies for the Good Treatment and Preservation of the Indians. This abolished the slavery of indigenous people and abolished the encomienda system. This resulted in protests when people felt the system of enslaved labor was threatened by these laws. However, this resulted in a greater proportion of African people being enslaved once these laws were passed. -
1549
Repartimiento system
The Spanish government created a new system of forced labor called repartimiento in which people would receive wages but the system became abused by those who paid the wages in advance and soon after kept the workers working indefinitely. This turned into a different form of forced labor apart from the plantation slavery in Central and South American at the time. -
1574
Earliest direct access from Africa to Brazil
The first direct slave trades to Brazil happened in 1574. The native population in that area was higher than in other areas that had European influence, and native people were enslaved along with African people in these areas. These people primarily worked on sugar plantations and helped provide sugar in plentiful amounts to Europe. -
Portugese Asientos
Several Portuguese leaders signed contracts or asientos that stipulated that a certain amount of African people would be shipped to the Americas. This established a high rate of enslaved people entering the Americas, occasionally through means that were illegal to dodge taxes.
