History of Free African Diaspora

", black in color... of his own free will, became a Christian in Lisbon, was in Castile for seven years, and crossed to Santo Domingo [for seven years]... From there he visited other islands then went to San Juan de Puerto Rico... [for] much time, [then]...came to . He was present at the taking of this city of Mexico and... other conquests, and later to the island with the marquis. He was the first to plant and harvest wheat in this land... and brought many vegetable seeds to New Spain."

"San Hipólito... one of the most interesting churches in the city. ...1520 ...the greatest slaughter of the Spaniards during the retreat of the memorable Noche Triste ...After the final conquest of the city, one of the survivors of that dismal night, , having freshly in mind its bloody horrors, built of adobe at this place a little commemorative chapel."

"They lived in a world where skin colour was less important than religion, class or talent: before the English became heavily involved in the slave trade, and before they founded their first surviving colony in the Americas. ...Their stories challenge the traditional narrative that racial slavery was inevitable and that it was imported to colonial Virginia from Tudor England. They force us to re-examine the 17th century to find out what had caused perceptions to change so radically."

"(ca. 1505-1553) was probably born in and sold by slavers to Portuguese traders, who... sold him to... . ...[H]e was baptized ...and around 1530 ...arrived ...in Puebla, ...[as] a domestic servant. By 1533 he ...convinced ...Valiente to allow him to become a ...[H]e would ...record ...his earnings ...to return them to his owner. He went to Guatemala and joined 's expedition to Peru... [which was bought out by] ... By 1535 he was in Chile fighting the Araucanians with Almagro, became a captain by 1540, and was rewarded with an near Santiago in 1546 and an in 1550. ...[H]e was killed by Araucanian Indians at the battle of Tucapel in 1553."

"Only rarely do we hear about a Negro slave who achieved distinction... Two examples... are , the conquistador of Chile, and Yanga, the famed Maroom leader in Veracruz."

"Although most blacks who came to America in early years were slaves, records of the Casa de Contractión showed that a good many freed black freedmen from and elsewhere found passage on westward-bound ships. Some... settled in the ... others... to Mexico and Peru, identifying... as Catholic subjects of a Spanish king, with much the same privileges and ambitions as white Spaniards. "Benito el Negro" and "Juan el Negro" (...[i.e.,] Juan de Villanueva) were encomenderos in the province of Pánuco and thus... should not have been slaves..."

"[T]here is a record of an African who apparently crossed the Atlantic as a freeman, participated in the siege of Tenochtitlon and, in subsequent conquests and explorations, ...[was] an entrepreneur (with... Negro and Indian slaves...) in the ...search for gold, and... [was] a citizen in the Spanish quarter of Mexico city. His name... Juan Garrido..."

"The Diccionario Porrúa, perhaps relying on... Bernal Díaz, says that he arrived with Juan Núñez Sedeño, who accompanied Cortés' 1519 expedition in his... ship... that included "un negro"; has him crossing... with the army of . Magnus Mörner... claiming ... "many" hispanicized and Spanish-speaking blacks took part in the conquest... without details..."

"His name appears... in the proceedings of 's cabildo... 1524 when that body granted... land... "...just past the chapel of Juan Garrido." identifies this as the church subsequently rebuilt... occupying the site where... Cortés' men died as they fled from on the Noche Triste."

"Garrido took part in at least one of expeditions sent out by Cortés after the conquest of the Triple Alliance to secure control and investigate the exonomic potential of outlying areas."

"Garrido became the first wheat farmer on the American continent. ...According to ..., "...they brought [Cortés] a small amount of rice, and in it were three grains of wheat; he ordered a free Negro to plant them." ...Gil Conzáles Dávila [identified him] as "Juan Garrrido, a servant [criado] of Hernando Cortés.""

"By... 1528, he had acquired on credit... slaves and mining equipment and reported to be in... Zacatula... The gold rush was at its peak but Garrido does not seem to have enjoyed... success..."

"Cortés... heard that... [one] of his vessels had discovered an "island"... [which] was in fact... the southern tip of Southern California. ...By the time he reached Chametla... the... marquis was accompanied by a... retinue which apparently included Juan Garrido... in a privileged category... [with] his own complement of Negro and Indian slaves... Cortés... returned to Mexico... 1536, accompanied by... some of the colonists including Juan Garrido..."

"[T]he present study poses the question of whether the Negro experience of Russian society can be instructive for a better understanding of the Negro experience within the major Western societies. ...For the general subject of Negro history, the main contribution of the present study is... offering additional knowledge about a peripheral area of what has been termed the "black diaspora.""

"The term "Negro"... here denotes only people of primarily African descent. ...[T]hat would include Alexander Pushkin and... Alexandre Dumas père (who traveled extensively through Russia in 1858 and 1859 and left a detailed account). ...Pushkin's maternal great-grandfather and Dumas's paternal grandmother were Negroes; the two writers were not. Nevertheless, attitudes that Pushkin and other Russians have expressed concerning his African heritage do figure prominently in the present work."

"The question of the earliest presence on Negroes in the geographical region which became the Russian empire centers on the origins of the small scattered settlements of Negroes... until recently... along the western slope of the Caucasus mountains near the Black Sea. ...[A] persistent line of thought ...places the advent of the Negroes in the area ...perhaps even in antiquity. This... was first raised by E. Lavrov in a letter to Kavkaz in 1913. ...[H]e pointed out that this was the area the ancient Greeks called , mentioned in their poetry ...eighth century B.C. ...Herodotus (484?-425? B.C) ...described the Colchians as black-skinned with wooly hair. This led him to believe that they were of Egyptian origin, perhaps of the army of the legendary Egyptian Emperor"

"[A]n 1884 compilation of classical writings... grown out of an archeological congress... Tiflis in 1881... mentions Pindar... who refers to the Argonauts going to the river Phasis, where Aieta attacked the dark-skinned Colchians. ...[T]he compiler ...concludes that the Laz people of had formerly been called Colchians. While admitting ...gaps in the evidence, the compiler cites a number of Greek writers, including , to support this contention."

"Patrick English... marshals... data to support... the hypothesis that the Abkhazian Negroes' lineage may extend... to ancient times... He notes Herodotus'... attention... in distinguishing between Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Colchians... observing that the Colchians wove linen like the Egyptians and... no one else. ...English questions the likelihood that slaves would be imported to an area... famous for the export of slaves from its local population. ...English relies upon... the Iliad, the Bible, and... writings of the Church Fathers. He... posits a possible link between the Abkhazian Negroes and the creation of the Khazar empire."

"Lia Golden-Hanga... notes that the tsarist officials frequently listed the Negroes as Arabs and Jews."

"Slava Tynes... discusses the work of ... who believed the Colchians had "Abyssino-Egyptian" origins. ...Gulia showed the similarities between many Abkhazian and Egyptian geographical names, those of deities and families... manners and customs."

"Blacks were in Spain and Portugal in high numbers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with many assimilated into the population. The first Africans who went to the Americas were from Europe, not Africa. ...Blacks were not just subordinate, passive pawns in these developments: they participated as rulers, merchants, seamen, soldiers, and free laborers, as well as slaves."

"[I]n the twelfth-century German version of the "Song of Roland," the epic tale based on the clashes between Christian and Moslem armies in the eighth century, one of the Moslem leaders is described as... "He was black and ugly, the people [in his country] are wild, the sun never shines there, the devils feel at home there.""

"Wolfram von Eschenbach's "," which was drawn from the legend of King Arthur... in the thirteenth century and evolved for centuries om England, France, Germany and the Netherlands... repeated the theme of black skin color as fearsome, but implied that Blacks could become enobled by racial mixing with whites and through Christianization."

"Hume's and Kant's denial of any significant achievements by blacks ignored prominent nearby examples in Europe, such as Frances Williams, a Jamaican classicist who had excelled as a student at Cambridge and whose career was familiar to Hume. Among those less known were three closer to Kant's home... , who through his accomplishments in Holland had in 1742 become the first black minister of any Protestant church. ...[T]he West India Company and the Church would not condone his marrying an African woman, choosing... to provide him a Dutch bride... from Rotterdam. ... ...born on the Gold Coast, around 1700 ...The West India Company brought him to Amsterdam ...and presented him to the Duke of Wolfenbüttel. He was baptized... in 1707 ...[H]e was able to enter the Universities of Halle in 1727 and Wittenberg in 1730, where he became skilled in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, and Dutch and concentrated on philosophy. ...In 1734 he was awarded a doctorate... In his philosophical work he... devoted... attention to mathematical and medical knowledge in the context of Enlightenment thought. He became a lecturer at the University of Halle and later at the . ...[I]n Russia ...Peter the Great ...became the godfather of one of his black servant boys and provided him with the best possible education. ...Abraham Hannibal ...was ...sent to France for ...higher education in mathematics and military engineering. This adventure would... provide the... plot for a short story by his great-grandson, Alexander Pushkin. Hannibal... attained the rank of major general and... served as commandant of the city of Reval... [and] later direct major canal construction projects..."

"Africa and Africans have had an influence on European thought and culture far disproportionate to the size of the small black population (which... approached 150,000 in the [16th century] ... and by the 18th Century... several thousand in France, a few thousand in the Netherlands, and several hundred... through Germany, Scandinavia, and Russia."

"[P]ersons of African ancestry... achieved distinction in Moorish Iberia and later in Spain and Portugal, the European societies that first saw a large influx of blacks. Most... were mulattos... Cristóbol de Meneses, a Dominican priest; the painters and Sebastian Gomez; and Leonardo Ortiz, a lawyer. ...In 1306 an Ethiopian delegation came to Europe to seek an alliance with the "King of the Spains" against the Moslems. King Anfós IV of Aragon considered arranging a double marriage with the of Ethiopia in 1428. And the Portuguese sent Pedro de Corvilhao to Ethiopia in 1487 on a similar mission."

"[L]iving experience of blacks in Europe appeared to be marked by smooth integration into European society... The 140,000 slaves imported into Europe from Africa between 1450 and 1505 were a welcome new labor force in the wake of the Bubonic Plague. On the whole, blacks in Christian Iberia were not limited to servile roles; but... were... not influential as a group. ...Free blacks living in and Lagos in the southern edge of Portugal owned houses and worked as day laborers, midwives, bakers, and servants. Most were domestic servants, laborers (including those on ships and river craft), and petty tradesmen. Some free blacks, especially women, became innkeepers. Blacks in Spain served as stevedores, factory workers, farm laborers, footmen, coachmen, and butlers. ...A few Africans active in the Americas during the early Iberian expansion were among returnees to Portugal and Spain from America and Africa from the 16th to the 18th centuries. These included free mulatto students, clerics, free and slave household servants, sailors, and some who attained gentlemen’s status. ...[M]any black women slaves as domestics and concubines led to mulatto offspring who received favored treatment, and ...some ...attained middle-class and even aristocratic status."

"[L]ater... in the northern, central, and eastern European societies... with smaller populations... it became fashionable... to employ blacks as house servants and in ceremonial roles such as military musicians."

"Black saints were proclaimed in parts of medieval Europe when the Holy Roman Emperors, beginning with Charles IV... 1346, adopted blacks into the ... The statue of in the chapel of St. Kilian at Magdeburg and the 17th-century bust of St. Gregory the Moor at the church of St. Gereon in Cologne testify..."

"There were... protagonists of black 'race' in the conquest of America and some... stood out enough to improve their social standing and even to have left their names for posterity."

"Manumission was not rare and many achieved it, establishing themselves as colonists with typical jobs as peculiar as doorman (the most common, in addition to guarding the door, he also called the councillors to meetings), town crier, auctioneer, executioner or... bagpiper. But some preferred to take the risk and enlist in the conquering forces."

"Possibly the most famous black conquistador... he was... a slave when in 1533 he asked his master, , a landowner from Puebla (Mexico), for permission to go on a four-year journey in search of fortune with the promise of returning and paying for his freedom with the profits... The Spaniard agreed and Juan enlisted... with two hundred other Africans (most of them slaves) in the expedition [to Peru] that Hernán Cortés' former lieutenant, , was preparing... Once at his destination... there was no opportunity because Pizarro had gone ahead. paid Alvarado... in exchange for his leaving... hiring the men who wanted to stay. Juan Valiente was one of them and in 1535 he was in Chile with... [the] new leader, fighting against the Araucanians. Five years later he had managed to rise to captain and amass some capital, including an and a property on the outskirts of , as well as a wife, Juana de Valdivia, an alleged former slave of... the famous . ...[H]e died in combat, along with Valdivia himself, in the (1553)."

"[A] parallel life, enslaved by the Portuguese but converted to Christianity in Lisbon... allowed him to acquire freedom and travel to , where he embarked in 1503 for Santo Domingo as a servant under... Pedro Garrido. ...[H]e fought [for eleven years] in the conquest of Cuba and Puerto Rico, as well as participating in the discovery of Florida. In 1519 he joined Cortés' expedition to Mexico... [I]n a letter to the King he boasted of having been the one who introduced the cultivation of wheat in those parts. He later returned to military life, during Antonio de Carvajal's [[w:Nuño de Guzmán#As conqueror of western Mexico|incursion [under Guzmán's command] into]] Michoacán and Zacatula. In 1525 he was granted a property in the new Mexico City, where he worked as a doorman, town crier and guard of the Chapultepec aqueduct... three years later... leading an expedition to exploit the gold mines of Zacatula. After another break, he enlisted under Cortés when he explored Baja California; he was responsible for—and co-owner of—a battalion of black and indigenous slaves. He died in 1547, leaving behind a wife and three children."

"Juan Beltrán This mulatto became famous in the Chilean wars, where for his brave actions and his collaboration in the founding of the city of Villarrica he was entrusted with the construction and position of captain of a fort on the outskirts, in addition to... a commission of half a thousand Indians. Beltrán led several victorious malocas (...raids in the language of overseas soldiers), but... died fighting against the indomitable Araucanians."

"Juan García Another mulatto... born free in around 1495. He was part of Pizarro's expedition to Peru, travelling with his wife and daughters. He was a town crier and bagpiper, his main mission being to weigh the precious metals collected in for the ransom of . He was also present at the successive distributions of gold and silver among the troops. ...[W]ith his earnings he bought an indigenous slave from another soldier and with her he had an illegitimate daughter. He lived in Cuzco, where he [participated] in its urban reform... then moved to with the idea of ​​returning to Spain. He did so in 1536, triumphantly, settling in the area where he was born and adopting the name of Juan García Pizarro."

"Other black conquerors The list of black conquerors in America is... [e]ndless... except that we lack sufficient data about their lives. ...Juan Bardales, an African slave ...participated in the expeditions to Panama and Honduras (where he said he received a hundred arrow wounds), obtaining his manumission and a pension of fifty pesos granted by the King. ...Sebastián Toral ... for his work in the exploration of Yucatán achieved freedom, tax exemption and... [a] royal pension, working as a porter. ...Antonio Pérez ...was free and participated with in the conquest of , where he rose to captain. ...Miguel Ruiz ...was with Pizarro in and obtained his share of the loot. ...Gómez de León ...received an in Chile."

"[T]housands of people of colour... were omitted by the chroniclers (although Cieza de León usually mentions them generically), such as the two hundred who helped put out the fire in Cuzco during the siege of Manco Inca in 1536 or the similar number sent from as armed reinforcements; or those who collaborated in the conquest of New Granada, of whom only the identity of a mulatto called Pedro de Lerma has been revealed."

"Scores of black men and women set up home in England as early as the 16th century—many arriving from Iberia, as the Spanish and Portuguese laid claim to swathes of Africa."

"... in the Westminster Roll of 1511, sound[s] his trumpet at the festivities marking the birth of a... son to Henry VIII and... Catherine of Aragon."

"Blanke... performed at Henry VII’s funeral and... coronation (...1509) ..."

"Blanke—like all Africans in England—was a free man."

"He received... twice... [what] most servants would... earn... before successfully petitioning... for a pay rise, doubling his wages..."

"In 1596, a black man... Edward Swarthye whipped John Guye... future first governor of Newfoundland. They were both servants... of Sir ..."

"It was... that such a high-status, educated servant as John Guye had been publicly humiliated that upset... onlookers, not the colour of Swarthye’s skin."

"Swarthye... [was] one of many Africans who fled their Spanish enslavers to join the English."

"The fact that Swarthye was allowed to testify in court demonstrates that he was... a free man... Swarthye’s testimony was taken by the Court... without demur."

"Reasonable Blackman was a silk weaver... probably... from Antwerp... which had a sizeable African population and was a... centre for cloth manufacture."

"Around 50,000 refugees fled to England from the southern Netherlands between 1550 and 1585, as war raged between Dutch rebels and Spanish forces occupying their country."

"Blackman had a family of at least three children... Edward, Edmund and Jane... we can assume he was married... As with ’s wife... she was probably an Englishwoman."

"[I]n... 1592... his daughter... and one of his sons, Edmund, died of the plague that struck London..."