1526
Spanish colonists bring enslaved Africans to San Miguel de Gualdape on the present-day Carolina/Georgia coast — decades before 1619.
King Afonso I of the Kongo Kingdom (in present-day Angola and Congo) wrote a series of letters to King João III of Portugal in 1526, explicitly protesting the devastating effects of the slave trade on his kingdom. He described how Portuguese and African traders were kidnapping nobles, free people, and even children of noble families. He demanded Portugal stop the trade or strictly regulate it. His letters represent one of the most detailed and powerful contemporary African denunciations of the Atlantic slave trade. Portugal ignored his appeals. The Kongo Kingdom's population and political stability were steadily destroyed by the trade over the following centuries.
Zoom in — months
Key events
- 1526King Afonso I of Kongo Protests Portuguese Slave Trade
King Afonso I of the Kongo Kingdom (in present-day Angola and Congo) wrote a series of letters to King João III of Portugal in 1526, explicitly protesting the devastating effects of the slave trade on his kingdom. He described how Portuguese and African traders were kidnapping nobles, free people, and even children of noble families. He demanded Portugal stop the trade or strictly regulate it. His letters represent one of the most detailed and powerful contemporary African denunciations of the Atlantic slave trade. Portugal ignored his appeals. The Kongo Kingdom's population and political stability were steadily destroyed by the trade over the following centuries.
- August 1526· debatedFirst enslaved Africans in what is now the US
Spanish colonists bring enslaved Africans to San Miguel de Gualdape on the present-day Carolina/Georgia coast — decades before 1619.
- November 1526· debatedThe first slave rebellion on US soil
The enslaved Africans at Gualdape revolt and flee to nearby Indigenous communities; the Spanish settlement collapses.