Like many of you, I was always told that the first Africans to arrive in what is now the United States were the 20 and odd Africans who arrived as slaves in Jamestown, Va., from what is now the country of Angola, in 1619. But this turns out not to be true. As a matter of fact, Africans arrived in North America more than a century before both the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock and before these Angolans arrived in Virginia. Whats more, we even know the identity of the first documented African to arrive. His name was Juan Garrido, and more astonishing, he wasnt even a slave. Next year will be the 500th anniversary of his arrival in Florida, and the state plans to commemorate this remarkable event. Juan Garrido was born in West Africa around 1480. According to the historians Ricardo Alegria and Jane Landers, Garridos notarized probanza (his curriculum vitae, more or less), dated 1538, says he moved from Africa to Lisbon, Portugal, of his own volition as a free man, stayed in Spain for seven years, and then, seeking his fortune and perhaps a bit of fame, he joined the earliest conquistadors to the New World. All the sworn witnesses to this document affirm that Garrido was horro, or free, when he arrived in Spain. Sailing from Seville around 1508, he arrived on the island of La Española, which is today called Hispaniola, the island on which the Dominican Republic and Haiti reside. He later settled in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Garrido is the first documented black person to arrive in this country, and he is also the first black conquistador. And like the other conquistadors, Garrido soon succumbed to the lure of wealth and fame in the New World.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 04:37:15 +0000
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