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The Spanish settlers brought black slaves to the New World.
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Juan Garrido and Juan Gonzalez de Leon accompany Ponce de Leon in his exploration of La Florida.
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First enslaved Africans brought to North America by Lucas Vazquez de Allyon expedition; established settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape in present-day Florida; this is the European settlement in the geographic United States.
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Panfilo Narvaez attempts to settle 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 the Gulf coast of Mexico after walking through wilderness for eight years. Estevanico, an aftrican slave, ensures their survival be learning to communicate with natives along the way.
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Hernando de Soto explores Florida and much of the present-day southeastern Uniteded States with the aid of free and enslaved slaves.
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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 escaped 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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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
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Spain trades Florida to Englan 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.
