Since its inception in the 1400s, the Atlantic slave trade has been as much a part of Europe's break into the Atlantic Ocean as the first trips to North America. And, of course, the west African discoveries resulted in the shipping of hundreds of thousands of Africans to North America during a four-century period. Furthermore, narratives of African exploration and slave captures reflect the same engagement with the unusual and unknown.
A Portuguese sailor narrates the "marvelous sight" of prisoners gathered on the African coast, and how other Africans "marvelled at the sight" of their ship.
A British sailor is impressed by the Africans' ability to catch the "sea-horses" (hippos) that circle their ships. However, the wonders give place to dry stories of slave trafficking and tracts on the evil of slavery.
The first enslaved Africans arrived in Vir.ginia in 1619, however the earliest recorded arrival in North America was 117 years earlier in 1502, when Juan de Córdoba transported six of his black slaves from Spain to Hispaniola.
The first slaves imported directly from Africa came in 1517 to work as slaves on Spanish plantations and mines in the Caribbean islands. As the thousands of Native Americans enslaved by the Spanish perished of overwork and illness, additional Africans were caught and sent to replace them.
The Atlantic slave trade was in full swing. For more than four centuries, it was a key and harsh component of the Spanish and English economy in North America.
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