Juan Garrido: First Known African to Reach the Americas as a Free Man

Juan Garrido, a free Black African man, participated in the conquest of Puerto Rico and Florida alongside Ponce de León, becoming one of the earliest documented Africans in the Americas as a free person. He later joined Hernán Cortés in the conquest of Mexico and is credited with being the first person to plant wheat in the New World around 1523. His life demonstrates that some Africans in the early colonial period held free status and participated actively in Spanish expeditions.