First Enslaved Africans Brought to the Americas at Hispaniola

Spanish Crown authorization in 1501 permitted enslaved Africans born in Spain to be transported to Hispaniola. This marked the formal beginning of African slavery in the Americas. The Spanish explicitly preferred Africans who had been baptized and raised in Iberia, fearing direct imports from Africa would introduce people with no Christian acculturation. Within decades the policy would be reversed as demand for labor far outstripped supply of 'ladino' slaves.