Africans and

Native Americans
The Language ofRace
and the Evolution ofRed-Black Peoples
SECOND EDITION

Jack D. Forbes

University of Illinois Press

Urbana and Chicago
 Introduction

Thousands of volumes have been written about the historical and social
relations existing between Europeans and the Native Peoples of the Americas
and between Europeans and Africans, but relations between Native Americans
and Africans have been sadly neglected. The entire Afro-Native American v
cultural exchange and contact experience is a fascinating and significant
subject, but one largely obscured by a focus upon European activity and
European colonial relations with 'peripheral' subject peoples.
Africans and Americans must now be studied together without their relations
always having to be obscured by the separations established through the work of
scholars focusing essentially upon some aspect of European expansion and
colonialism.
It is especially important to note here, at the very beginning of this study, that
those relations do not begin only in the Americas. On the contrary, they also
take place in Europe and in Africa and perhaps also in the Pacific.
Contacts in Europe can be seen as significant because both the African and
Native American ancestry there has tended to be absorbed into the general
European society, and whatever earlier cultural developments have occurred
have now become part of modern European culture. The impact of non-
European peoples upon European societies directly within Europe has not, as of
yet, been fully explored; and, of course, there is now a large new group of
Native Americans and people of African background in Europe.
Contacts in the Americas have been studied to some extent but much work
remains to be done. Contacts in Africa have been studied very little.
The fact of a relatively small but steady American presence in ;Africa from
at least the early 1500s onward may well prove to be a vital area for future re-
search, since one would expect to find Native American cultural influences in
regions such as Angola-Zaire and Ghana-Guinea-Cape Verde especially.
It is, of course, interesting to note that some Africans were already exposed to
American cultural influences before leaving Africa. The cultures brought by
2 Africans and Native Anzericans
Africans to the Americas may already have been influenced, especially by
Brazilian Native Americans. The extent of such cultural exchange will
obviously have to be worked out in careful field research in Angola, Ghana,
Guinea, Cabo Verde, and other places, as well as in archival records.
This study has a mocl~st objective, in that it seeks to introduce the subject
and to primarily deal with a series of basic issues or questions which have to be
resolved before proceeding to a detailed analysis of the precise nature of
African-American relations. Raymond Williams, in Keywords (1976), has shown
the importance of confronting the issue of meaning as a fundamental aspect of
scholarship. I propose to apply his example to the basic terms which inform our
understanding of African- American contact and mixture, terms which are part
of a nomenclature developed under colonialism and racism.
Long ago, when first working with my own Powhatan-Renape people of
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and surrounding areas, I discovered that the
meaning of racial terms was a controversial issue.
I learned that terms such as 'mulatto' and 'colored' were used, or had been
used, in Virginia in a quite different way from their usage in most books
including modern dictionaries. I also discovered that many questions were not
answerable within the context of the latter, such as: 'what do you call a p~rson of
mixed American, European and African ancestry?' No one provided any
answer, because, it seems, the American mixture with the African was generally
subordinated to a focus upon (or a fascination with) only the black-white nexus.
The modern dictionaries all stated that a mulatto was the child of a black and
a white or someone of mixed black and white ancestry. But where did that leave
those who were also part-Indian?
In any case, I discovered that Native American descendants had been legally J

defined as mulattoes in Virginia in 1705, without having any African ancestry.

Thus I knew that the dictionaries were wrong and that there was a lot that was
hidden from view by the way most authors had written about the southern
United States, about slavery, and about colored people. I later discovered also
that the same thing was true as regards the Caribbean, Brazil, and much of the
rest of the Americas.
The unraveling of mis-conceptions is almost as important as the creation of
new conceptions, it would seem, and this is nowhere more true than in the
realm of race relations. So before one can seriously reconstruct Black African-
Native American contacts one must clear away a lot of mistakes, mistakes
arising out of the very nature of discourse in a racist-colonial setting as well as
mistakes arising from the assumption that the current meanings assigned to
racial terms have an equal validity for the past.
As the reader will see, there is hardly a racial term which has a clear and
consistent meaning over time (and space). For example, the term 'Indian' (or
indio) has been applied to many peoples including the Indians of South Asia as
well as all groups found in the 'West' Indies (the Americas) and the 'East'
Indies (Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). The term 'negro' has been applied
to Black Africans, the Indians of India, Native Americans, Japanese, and slaves
 Introduction 3
of whatever ancestry. 'Black' has been used for all of the above and for non-
whites in general.
By way of illustration, in attempting to grapple with the problem of Black
African-Native American mixture and especially with the question of to what
extent African-Americans throughout the Americas are part American Indian,
it is first necessary to focus upon a clarification of such racial or ethnic terms as
were used in the colonial and early national periods. Key terms include:
mulatto, pardo, colored, free colored, negro, zambo, or sambo, mustee and
mestizo.
As noted, many modern writers, whether popular or scholarly, have simply
assumed that they could transfer sixteenth-, seventeenth-, or eighteenth-
century racial terms to contemporary usage without any critical examination of
meaning. For example, it has been assumed generally that a mulatto of, let us
say, 1600, would be of the same racial background as a mulatto of 1865 or of
1900; or that a 'colored person' of 1830 would be the same as a 'colored person'
of 1930.
Moreover, it has also been assumed that terms such as 'free negro' and 'free
colored' can be used interchangeably and that one could, in more recent usage,
substitl!te 'free Black' for either of these.
Many prominent writers have, it seems, been very lax in their failure to
consider that the 'meaning' of a word is never a timeless, eternal constant but
rather is a constantly evolving changing pointer. Thus the word 'coach' as used
in the ninteenth-century (stage coach or other horse-drawn vehicle, then later a
railway coach) has today become something different (for example, motor
coach). And while we can trace the obvious connection between stage coach,
railway coach, and motor coach it is still quite clear that we would be badly
mistaken to interpret 'get on the coach' of 1840, for example as meaning 'get on
the bus' of 1960! And, of course, the term 'coach' has other meanings today,
aside from motor coach.
We may think we know what the word 'negro' means today but do we know
what it meant in 1800 in Virginia? And did it mean the same as 'colored'? The
I ~
answer to these questions is not and cannot be an exercise in deductive logic or
a priori reasoning. It is, rather, an empirical problem which can only be solved by
discovering through documentary and other evidence exactly how such terms
were used. This is not an easy task, for reasons which will become clearer later.
In short, we cannot move, historiographically, from word to word or concept
to concept across the centuries. We must instead actually engage the primary
data in order to 'touch reality'. When we discover that one of Sir Francis
Drake's pilots (not an airline pilot, incidentally) in 1595 was 'yslefio de naci6n
mulato' and sailed from Plymouth, England (although being an 'islander' in
origin), we should not picture him as if he were a mulato of 1981 or of 1900. His
precise racial background is not established by the use of the term 'mulato ', as we shall
see. We must ascertain from other evidence, if we can, what the Spanish author
meant by his usage of this category.
During the summer of 1981 newspapers in the United States carried stories
4 Africans and Native Americans
about 'blacks' rioting in British cities. What they failed to tell their readers was
that in Britain today the term 'black' is applied not only to Africans or West
Indians (of whatever shade or mixture) but also to people from India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and even to Latin Americans. (For example, a very
light -skinned Chilean lady refugee living in Oxford was surprised to be referred
to as a 'black'. Her dark hair, Spanish accent, and immigrant status had caused
her to become 'black', at least to some English contacts.)
I have before me an appeal to 'Drop All Charges against Black Youth' which
refers to the arrest of some 'young Asians' in Bradford during the summer of
1981. 1
This modern British usage (which usage extends well back into earlier years)
reflects very vividly the problem of assuming that English terms such as 'black',
'negro', 'mulatto', or 'colored', can be interpreted easily when found in
documents of earlier eras.
When the Europeans first established intensive contacts with Africans and
part-Africans, they met people with a great variety of physical characteristics.
This was especially true in the Iberian peninsula and Mediterranean area, but
undoubtedly many of the 'Moors' and 'Blackamoors' who came to England in
Shakespeare's day were of north African as well as sub-Saharan background
and from many distinct nations. Later in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, diversity was also encountered, as when most English vessels sailing
to the Caribbean dropped anchor at the Cabo Verde Islands. One writer in
1647 commented on the extreme variability of physical types met there and the
great beauty of the mixed Cabo Verde women. 2
We must realize, therefore, that at the very beginning of the modern period
racial terms as used by Iberians and as acquired by the English were going to
refer to part-African peoples who might not only have the features of the Gulf
of Guinea (variable as they are) but also every conceivable combination of
central African, lbero-African, Afro-Arabic and American-African mixtures.
And for our purposes it is important to stress that many Africans from the
Sahel or 'savannah' belt (Hausa etc.), as well as from parts of East Africa,
sometimes resemble American-African hybrids (with various combinations of
high cheekbones, prominent aquiline noses, semi-wavy or 'bushy' hair,
'oriental' eye shapes, etc.). Why is this important? Simply because many part-
American, part-African persons (with no European ancestry) could easily be
subsumed under a racial term applicable to 'pure-blood' Africans, and would
not, in any case, be especially recognizable to most observers as being part-
American. The predominant physical type of the slaves brought in from Africa
may have been that of coastal West Africa, but enough variability existed so that
terms such as 'Blackamoor', negro, and 'black' cannot a priori be assumed to be
useful for determining precise genetic identity.
Many color terms, such as 'dark', 'swarthy' and 'brown' are also quite
ambiguous, as should be obvious. In a 1756 list of militia-men in King and
Queen County, Virginia, for example, one finds, in addition to fair-
complexioned persons, Thomas Delany as 'dark', Benjamin Wilson as 'dark',
James Willimore as 'Brown', John Major as 'Brown', John Ketnp as 'swarthv'
 Introduction 5
(but with light hair and freckles), John Evans as 'dark', and Richard Riddle as
'dark'. All or most of these men were born in Virginia and several were
'planters'. Were they part-American or part-African? Certainly we cannot judge
their 'race' from such color-referents alone.
Similarly, in 1768, an advertisement appeared in New Jersey for 'an
apprentice lad named John Foster, born in the Jersies, about 5 feet 8 inches
high, of a dark complexion, and pitted with the small-pox, wears his hair with a
false que to it.' 3
In any case, the colonial and state courts in the United States frequently had
difficulty in determining exact racial status. In 1859 a North Carolina court
called in a planter as an expert who could distinguish between 'the descendants
of a negro and a white person, and the descendants of a negro and an Indian.'
He could also, allegedly, differentiate between a pure African and a 'white
cross' or an 'Indian cross' .4 Unfortunately, most of us today lack that kind of
certain expertise, whatever phenotypical features are seized upon as evidence
providing 'proof'.
In our efforts to reconstruct the story of Black African-Native American
relations it is necessary, then, to begin with an analysis of the evolution of the
meaning of racial terms, for only in this way can we hope to identify people of
American and African ancestry in the past. But the study of words alone does
not, in fact, reveal the subtleties of actual usage. And thus I have had to delve
into many aspects of Native American-Black African history in order to
reconstruct the environments in which racial and color terms have evolved and
been given a new or different content.
The reader will find a great deal of the social and cultural history of
Afroamericans and Native Americans in this work, woven together with broad
social history as it relates to colonialism, slavery and racism. But the primary
purpose of this study is not to write a comprehensive account of Native American-
African relations but rather to establish a sound empirical and conceptual basis for
further study in this area and, more importantly, to demonstrate beyond any doubt
that old assumptions must be set aside. This latter is especially true as regards the
extent of Native American-African mixture and the significant genetic contri-
bution of Americans to present-day 'black' or 'Afroamerican' populations in
the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States, and elsewhere.
This \\rork will, I hope, make a major contribution to the field of the history of
race relations and, more specifically, to the study of the formation of plantation,
creole, and colonial cultures in the Americas and elsewhere. Because of the
data presented herein, a great deal of revision will have to be made in these
areas, as well as in the fields studying the evolution of modern African,
Afroamerican, and Native American cultures.
Finally, I hope that this study of interethnic contact and racial classifying will
lead to progress in the field of human rights by highlighting and clarifying a
major area of abuse: the arbitrary and often racist practice of defining the
identities of other human beings by powerful outsiders, as well as by
governments and institutions.
 1
Africans and Americans: Inter-
Continental Contacts Across the
Adantic, to 1500

AMERICANS CROSSING THE ATLANTIC BEFORE COLUMBUS

The meeting of Native Americans and Africans, of people from two great
continents of the earth, can be described in many ways. A fitting mode in which
to begin is to cite a Native American story from Guyana, presented by Jan
Carew, in which Nyan, an African sky-spirit, along with the African earth-
mother, the African river-mother, and Anancy the Spider-trickster met the
Great Spirit, the Father Sun, and other spirit-powers of the Americans. 1
The next day, all the peoples of the earth complained to Father Sun and for the first
time, the ebony people, who were neighbors of Tihona, made themselves heard .... The
Great Spirit invited Nyan, the anthracite-coloured Sky-God ... to share his domains ....
They [the African spirits] agreed on condition that the Great Spirit, in turn, shared the
distant kingdoms of earth and sky that Nyan ruled. 2

Pia, an American child of the Sun and of Tihona, the Mist-woman, became a
brother to Anancy the Spiderman, and both agreed to live among human
beings.
Thus the spirit-powers of the Black Africans are said to have established a
close cooperative relationship with the spirit-powers of the Americans. This
same cooperation and reciprocal relationship can also be seen in Brazil, where
Tupinamba and Guarani candombles exist side by side with those of Congo-
Angola and Nago orientation and where Native American and African spiritual
powers are called upon for assistance in various contexts:1
The dimensions of African-American contact can also be seen in a painting
by the Dutch artist Jan Steen (1645) in which the making of a marriage contract
in the Netherlands area is depicted. The future bridegroom is of African
ancestry while a man of American race is an active onlooker on the right-hand
side of the scene. The bride is of European Dutch background. 4
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 7
Thus in spiritual as well as secular contexts, the American and African
peoples have interacted with each other in a variety of settings and situations.
These interactions may well have begun in very ancient times.
J. A. Rogers, Leo Wiener, Ivan Van Sertima, and others have cited evidence,
including the "Olmec" stone heads of Mexico, pointing towards early contacts
between American and African cultures. 5 I do not propose here to explore the
early archaeological evidence which, in essence, requires a separate study, but
instead, I will cite briefly some tantalizing data which suggests contacts in both
directions.
It is now well known that the Atlantic Ocean contains a series of powerful
'rivers' or currents which can facilitate the movement of floating objects from
the Americas to Europe and Africa as well as from the latter to the Americas. In
the North Atlantic the most prominent current is that of the 'Gulfstream'
which swings through the Caribbean and then moves in a northeasterly
direction from Florida to the Grand Banks off Terra Nova (Newfoundland),
turning then eastwards towards the British Isles and the Bay of Biscay. This
current has carried debris from Jamaica and the Caribbean to the Hebrides and
Orkneys of Scotland. Moreover, Jean Merrien tells us that valuable hardwood
was commonly washed ashore along the coasts of Ireland and Wales: 'This
timber from the ocean, borne by the Gulf Stream, really came from the rivers of
Mexico.' Merrien, a student of trans-Atlantic navigation by small vessels, also
states that
the first attempt- the first success - [of crossing the Atlantic by one man] could only
come from the American side, ... because the crossing is much less difficult in that
direction. A French writer has said (justly, in all probability) that if America had been the
Old World its inhabitants would have discovered Europe long before we did, in fact,
discover America.
This is because of the prevailing winds from the west as well as the currents.
One can, says Merrien, sail in a 'straight line' from Boston via Newfoundland to
Ireland or Cornwall 'with almost the certainty of fair winds'. The other
direction requires 'twice the distance, thrice the time, and four times the sweat'.
In the 1860s a 48-foot-long sloop, Alice, was navigated from North America
to the Isle of Wight in less than 20 days with very favorable winds; and in recent
times a wooden raft was propelled from Canada to northern Europe by means
of this ocean river. Moreover, Stephen C. Jett cites the 68-day passage of one
William Verity from Florida to Ireland in a 12-foot sloop as well as the crossing
by two men from New York to the Scilly Islands in 55 days in a 17-foot dory
powered only by oars. Thus the Gulfstream demonstrably can propel small
craft successfully from the Americas to Europe.
Perhaps this is the explanation behind the local Dutch tradition that holds
that in AD 849 one Zierik arrived by boat to found the coastal city of Zierikzee
and why the local people believed that he had arrived in an Inuit (Greenland)
kayak which was on display there for several centuries. The kayak may, indeed,
not have been Zierik's original craft but it very possibly points toward a genuine
folk tradition of a crossing of the Atlantic from the west. 6
8 Africans and N alive Americans
In this context it is also worth noting a report that Columbus had information
about strange people from the west who had reached Ireland prior to 1492,
doubtless via the Gulfstream. Merrien tells us that Bartholomew or Christopher
Columbus had made marginal notes in their copy of Pius Il's Historia (14 77) to
the effect that 'some men have come from Cathay by heading east. We have
seen more than one remarkable thing, especially in Galway, in Ireland, two
people tied to two wrecks, a man and a woman, a superb creature.' Merrien also
believes that the first documented case of a single navigator crossing the
Atlantic consists in the record of a Native American who reached the Iberian
peninsula long before Columbus' day.
In the Middle Ages there arrived one day on the coast of Spain a man "red and strange"
in a craft described as a hollowed tree. From the recorded description, which specifically
states that he was not a Negro, he might well have been a native of America in a piragua-
a dug-out canoe ... the unfortunate man, ill and enfeebled, died before he had been
taught to make himself understood.

To return to our own discussion of the Gulfstream, it should be noted

that this eastward-flowing current has a southern extension which swings
southwards along the west coast of Europe to the Iberian peninsula and on to
the Canary Islands. From the latter region it turns southwestwards and then
westwards, returning to the Americas in the vicinity of Trinidad and rejoining
the Caribbean segment of the Gulfstream. Thus it would be theoretically
possible to float in a great circle from the Caribbean to Europe and
northwestern Africa and then back again to the Caribbean.
A North American archaeologist, E. F. Greenman, has argued that the
crossing of the North Atlantic was 'feasible' before the end of the Pleistocene
period (about 11,000 years ago) 'for a people with kayaks and the Beothuk type
of canoe [from Newfoundland], if at that time the ocean was filled with floating
ice from the Scandinavian and Labrador glaciers, and from freezing of the sea
itself.' The same author attempts to show many parallels between Pleistocene
European and American cultures, but sadly neglects African comparisons. In
any case, his argument is based solely upon hypothetical European movements
towards the Americas, movements which would have had to fight against the
currents (and winds) rather than flowing with them. 7
Bartolome de las Casas, in his monumental Historia de las Indias, cites
examples of rafts or canoes (alrnadias), dead Americans, and debris reaching the
Azores Islands before 1492. This evidence will be discussed below. Here it is
only necessary to note that the Azores lay in an area of weak currents but that,
even so, with the help of winds from the west and northwest some boats could
reach the islands from the Americas. 8
In the South Atlantic, as noted, a strong current runs from the west coast of
North Africa towards Trinidad. Below that a counter-current is sometimes
shown, running eastwards from South America to the Gulf of Guinea. Then a
strong current runs westwards from the mouth of the River Zaire (Congo), to
the north of the Amazon, where it divides, part joining the northwesterly
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 9
current which becomes the Gulfstream and part swinging southwards along the
coast of Brazil until it veers eastwards across the Atlantic to Africa again,
reaching southwestern Africa, from whence it curves northwards to rejoin the
Zaire-Amazon current. Thus, as farther north, a great circle is formed.
Fundamentally, what we see are two great circular rivers in the ocean, the
northern circle running in a clockwise direction and the southern circle in a
counter-clockwise direction, with a smaller counter-current in between,
running eastwards. In the South Atlantic Americans might have reached Africa
via the counter-current or, more likely, via the Brazil to southwest Africa
current. Africans could have used either the southern (westwards) swing of the
North Atlantic circle or the northern (also westwards) swing of the South
Atlantic circle, coming from the Sierra Leone-Senegal region or the Congo-
Angola region respectively.
Of course, one of the problems with the argument for early trans-Atlantic
crossings is that in the modern period such islands as Iceland, Bermuda, the
Azores, the Madeiras, the Cabo Verdes, Tristan da Cunha, Ascension, and
even Sao Tome (off Nigeria and Cameroun) were uninhabited prior to
documented Irish, Norse, and Portuguese occupations. On the other hand,
some of these islands are small or far from major currents. Bartolome de las
Casas states that the Azores were the is/as Cassiterides mentioned by Strabo in
his Geography and which islands were repeatedly visited by the Carthaginians.
Allegedly, there lived in the Azores a people who were of /oro or bafo color, that
is to say, people of the color of Native Americans or intermediate between white
and black. 9 The Canary Islands were inhabited in the fifteenth century by a
people who were isolated from nearby Africa and whose cultures somewhat
resembled those of some Americans. Moreover, the personal names of the
many canarios enslaved by the Spanish have a decidedly American 'ring' about
them (although such resemblances do not always mean a great deal). 10 The
canarios are sometimes described as a !oro or brownish-colored people in the
slave registers.
The fact that the islands of Cabo Verde and Madeira were uninhabited in the
fifteenth century does indeed pose a problem for African navigation to the
Americas; however, that will be discussed later. Now it is necessary to consider
briefly evidence relating to the maritime capabilities of Americans in the late
fifteenth century, to see whether voyages across the Atlantic might have been
feasible.
The Americans of the Caribbean region were outstanding navigators and
seamen, as noted by the Spaniards and other Europeans. Christopher
Columbus was impressed everywhere by their skill. He noted, for example, that
their boats (barcos y barquillos) 'which they call canoas', were excellently made
from a single tree, were very large and long, carrying sometimes 40 or 45 men,
two or more codos (perhaps a man's breadth) in width. The American boats were
unsinkable, and if in a storm they happened to capsize, the sailors simply turned
them back over while swimming in the sea, bailing them out with goards carried
for that purpose. 11 Andres Bernaldez recorded (from Columbus) that the
10 Africans and Native Americans
Americans navigated in their canoas with exceptional agility and speed, with 60
to 80 men in them, each with an oar, and they went by sea 150 leagues or more.
They were 'masters of the sea'. (A canoe was later discovered in Jamaica which
was 96 feet long, 8 feet broad, made from a single tree.) 12
Columbus found that the Lucayo people of the Bahamas were not only very
well acquainted with Cuba (one and a half days away via canoe) but also knew
that from Cuba it was a 'ten days' journey' to the mainland (doubtless Mexico
or South America since Florida would have been closer than that). He also saw
a boat which was 95 palms long in which 150 persons could be contained and
navigate. Others were seen which were of great workmanship and beauty, being
expertly carved. A canoe was also seen being navigated successfully by one man
in high winds and rough sea.
At Haiti, Columbus learned that that island, or Jamaica, was ten days' journey
distant from the mainland and that the people there were clothed (thus
referring to Mexico or Yucatan most likely). In another place he learned of a
land, 100 leagues away, where gold was mined. 13
The Arawak and Carib-speaking peoples of the Caribbean were well
informed geographically. Columbus captured Caribs in the Antilles (such as
Guadeloupe) from whom he learned of the South American mainland, but he
also learned of the mainland from Americans living on St Croix and Borinquen
(Puerto Rico). Americans who were taken into Europe drew maps there which
showed Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas, as well as 'many other islands and
countries' which were named in the native language. 14
It seems quite clear that the geography of the Caribbean basin and the .
Bahamas, including that of the adjacent mainland, was accurately known to the
Americans. Moreover, it seems clear that voyages of 60 to 150 leagues were
undertaken (about 180 to 450 miles, figured conservatively at three miles per
league although the Spanish nautical league often exceeded that distance).
When Spaniards reached the area of Yucatan in 1517 and again in 1518 they
found that the Maya people were already aware of what had transpired on the
islands invaded earlier by the Europeans. The Maya were uniformly hostile
and, at Campeche, 'they then made signs with their hands to find out whether
we came from the direction of the sunrise, repeating the word "Castilan"
"Castilan" and we did not understand what they meant by Castilan.' In the
latter year the Spaniards met an American woman from Jamaica on the island of
Cozumel. She told them
that two years earlier she had started from Jamaica with ten Indians in a large canoe
intending to go and fish near some small islands, and that the currents had carried them
over to this island where they had been driven ashore, and that her husband and all the
Jamaica Indians had been killed and sacrificed.

It seems more likely that the Jamaicans had fled from their home to avoid
Spanish slave-raiders and that they did not want to fall under European control;
hence her story. In any case, all of the Maya towns along the coast in 1517 were
well aware of the threat posed by the Spaniards. This news could have been
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 11
conveyed by two Spaniards living among them, but whatever the source the
'news' had spread very widely.
Even more significant, for our purposes, is the fact that when the Spaniards
reached Yucatan in 151 7 they
saw ten large canoes, called piraguas, full of Indians from the town, approaching us with
oars and sails. The canoes were large ones made like hollow troughs cleverly cut out
from huge single logs, and many of them would hold forty Indians.

The fact that these boats were equipped with sails is indeed interesting,
because it means that wind-power could be used to run against currents or to
navigate rapidly even where currents were lacking. Clinton R. Edwards also
cites other evidence documenting the use of sails by Carib and other American
peoples in the Caribbean and by Ecuadorian-north Peruvian sailors in the
Pacific, both at the time of initial Spanish contact.
As an example of the navigational capabilities of the Caribbean natives, we
can cite the case in 1516 when 70 or 80 Spaniards in a caravel and a bergantine
(brig) sailed from Santiago de Cuba to the Guanaxa Islands off Honduras (now
Roatan). There they enslaved many Guanaxa people and carried them in the
caravel to Havana, Cuba. The Americans were subsequently able to overcome
their Spanish guards, seizing· the sailing ship 'y haciendose a la vela, cual si
fueran expertos navegantes, volvieron a su patria que distaba mas de
doscientas leguas.' In short, the Americans were such 'expert navigators' that
they were able to sail from Havana to Honduras, a distance of more than 200
leagues, in a European vessel with no assistance from any non-Americans; and
this after having been kept below decks during their journey to Havana.
The navigational capabilities of the Americans of the Caribbean-Mexican
coastal area extend back well into pre-Columbian times, as attested to by
pictures of boats found in various codices, murals, and sculptured walls in the
Mexico-Yucatan region. In about the tenth century AD also the Mexican
leader Quetzalcoatl is recorded as having sailed with a raft to the east (rising
sun) from the Gulf coast of central Mexico. 15
Along the Atlantic coast of North America, Americans also went out to sea.
On the South Carolina coast, for example, the Sewee outfitted boats with sails
and on one occasion a group of natives decided to visit England. They outfitted
a canoe with sails and went out into the Atlantic but were picked up by a British
vessel and sold as slaves. 16
In 1524 Verrazano saw dugout boats outside Chesapeake Bay which were 20
feet long, while canoes were seen in Narraganset Bay, going out to sea, with 14
or 15 men in them. 17 One report of a later date states that Americans navigated
between New Jersey and Chesapeake Bay, using canoes specially fitted out with
sails and decks.
But when they want [to go] a distance over the sea, as for instance to Virginia or New
Holland, then they fasten two punts [canoes, dugouts] together broadwise with timbers
over them, right strongly put together, the deck made completely tight and side board of
12 Africans and Native Americans
planks; sails of rugs and freze [cloth] joined together; ropes and tackle made of bast and
slender spruce roots; [and they] also mason for themselves a little fireplace on deck. 1H
To the south, along the Brazilian coast, the Portuguese and other Europeans
also witnessed American navigation at sea. An Italian traveling with Magellan in
1519 noted that the Brazilians' boats were made from the trunk of a tree, and
were so large that each boat held 30 to 40 men. In the 1550s Hans Staden
noted that the dugout boats of the Santos-Rio de Janeiro area could hold up to
30 men, were four feet in width, with some being larger and some smaller.
In these they move rapidly with oars, navigating with them as far as they wish. When the
sea is rough they take the canoes ashore until good weather comes again. They do not go
more than two leagues straight out to sea but along the coast they navigate far. 1 <.~
In 1565 the Jesuit Jose de Anchieta stated that the Americans of the same
region had dozens or more canoas made from a single tree, with other pieces of
the same cutting used as 'boards' well attached with vines. They were large
enough to carry 20 to 25 persons with their arms and supplies, and some held
up to 30 persons. With these boats they were able to cross 'such fierce [bravas]
seas that it is a frightful thing and not to be imagined or believed without
seeing'. An chi eta also noted that if the canoes turned over, the navigators
simply bailed out the boat, turned it right side up, and carried on.
Thus the Brazilian boats were also very well made, were very fast and
manoeuvrable and could be righted at sea if necessary. They were used to carry
warriors and supplies over considerable distances along the coast, as, for
example, from Santos (Sao Vicente) to Rio de Janeiro. 20
In general, it would appear that the Americans of the Caribbean built the
biggest boats and were most accustomed to going far out to sea, while the
Atlantic coastal groups were more oriented to staying within a certain distance
of land (six miles or so). On the other hand, all were capable of being carried
out to sea by strong winds and currents and yet surviving rough water.
It should also be noted that several groups along the Pacific coast
manufactured seaworthy craft and were capable of reaching Polynesia by means
of favorable currents. It is beyond the scope of this study to discuss such
voyages but one must note that many Pacific island peoples may very well be of
American ancestry mixed with varying proportions of 'Oceanic Negroid'
(African?) and Malayo-Indonesian stocks. 21
Returning to the Atlantic, it is interesting to note that there is some additional
evidence to support the notion that Americans crossed in an easterly direction.
For example, Pliny, in his Natural History, reported that
Nepos de septentrionali circuitu tradit Quinto Metello Celeri, Afrani in consulatu
collegae sed tum Galliae proconsuli, lndos a rege Sueborum dono datos, que ex India
commerci causa navigantes tempestatibus essent in Gern1aniam abrepti.
Thus we learn that Cornelius Nepos, an author of several works in the last
century BC, and virtually a contemporary observer, recorded that as to the
northern circuit of the seas (from France northwards)
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 13
that Quintus Metellus Celer, colleague of Afranius in the consulship [of Rome] but at
the time pro-consul of Gaul [south of the Alps] received from the [Suevi] king ... a
present of Indians, who on a trade voyage had been carried off their course by storms to
Germany.
In order to interpret this event, which occurred about 60 BC, we must keep in
mind that for Pliny Germany commenced far to the south of Denmark (that is
in the Belgium-Netherlands region most likely). Pliny states that in the time of
Augustus 'Germaniam classe circumvecta ad Cimbrorum promunturium' (a
fleet 'sailed round Germany' to the promontory of the Cimbri, in Denmark). 22
Also Pliny believed that the Indos had reached a Germanic-speaking zone by
way of a fictitious sea which was thought by him to have connected India with
the Baltic. We know, however, that the only way that people looking like
'Indians' could have been driven by a storm to northern Europe would have
been across the Atlantic from America. It should also be noted that the Suevi
group of Germanic-speaking tribes is thought by some to have included the
Angles, a people living at a later date along the North Sea shore of Germany.
Several later writers, citing the Nepos account, assume that the 'Indians'
were driven across the Atlantic. Certainly there is no reason to doubt that the
builders of Teotihuacan and the Olmecs were engaged in widespread trade or
that they possessed navigational capabilities, to mention only two American
groups active in the 60 BC time-period. 23
Archaeological evidence may also support later eastbound voyages, since
Inuit (Eskimo) type harpoon-heads have been found at two locations in Ireland
and Scotland. For example, a harpoon-head of very worn condition was found
in County Down, Ireland of which it is 'absolutely certain, that it is of Archaic
Eskimo origin'.
Specifically, this harpoon-head is of 'Thule type', dated probably between
the tenth and thirteenth centuries. It was very unlikely to have been carried to
Ireland by a seal or a walrus and most likely was taken there by a living Inuit
hunter, perphaps on a Norse vessel. The authors of the report on this find state
that 'so far no harpoon-head of the meso lithic period has been recovered from
Ireland, and the present spechnen has no parallels among prehistoric European
finds.' 24 The harpoon-head found in Scotland may be of'old Thule' type and is
perhaps earlier in date than the Irish discovery. It was found before 187 6 in
Aberdeenshire, in sandy ground. 25
Inuit navigation will be discussed below, but here it is worth noting that the
Angmagssalik people of east Greenland in the eighteenth century used umiaks
to journey all the way around the southern tip of Greenland to barter on the
west coast. Often they did not beach the umiaks but moored them in the water,
having no need to dry them out. Such boats might have survived the kind of
strong easterly winds which in 1347 drove a small Norse boat all the way from
Markland (Labrador) to Iceland. 26
Las Casas and other writers report that Columbus knew before his 1492
voyage of Americans. reaching the Azores, along with 'reeds', pine trees and
other debris driven by westerly and northwesterly winds. Certain Azorean
14 Africans and Native A 1nericans
settlers had told him that the sea had tossed up on the island of Las Flores the
bodies of two dead persons, 'who seemed to have very wide faces and features
unlike those of Christians'. Moreover, on another occasion, it was said that in
the Cabo de Ia Verga and its vicinity almadias or canoes were seen outfitted with
a sort of 'house'. These canoes were driven from place to place or island to
island by the force of winds, and the occupants had apparently perished or
disappeared while the vessels drifted for a time in the Azores region.
Also it was known that a Portuguese pilot had seen an 'ingeniously carved
piece of wood' some 450 leagues to the west of Portugal, which wood was being
driven from the west and had not been carved with iron tools. 27

AFRICANS CROSSING THE ATLANTIC BEFORE COLUMBUS

Columbus was also aware that Africans may well have utilized ocean currents to
navigate to the Americas. His 1498 voyage specifically used the southern route
from the Cabo Verde Islands to Trinidad, an easy crossing travelled
consistently thereafter by Spaniards, Portuguese, Britons and others. Columbus
was especially intrigued to see what lands lay in the South American direction,
since the king of Portugal had said that there was tierra firme in that direction
and was greatly inclined to make discoveries to the southwest 'y que se habian
hallado canoas que salian de Ia costa de Guinea, que navegaban al Oeste con
mercadurias.' In short, the Portuguese had found boats (canoas) which left from
West Africa to navigate to the west with merchandise. 28
In the Gulf of Paria area, near Trinidad, Columbus found that the Americans
trajeron pafiezuelos de algod6n muy labrados y tejidos, con colores y labores como los
Bevan de Guinea, de los rfos a la Sierra Leona, sin diferencia, y dice que no deben
comunicar con aquellos, porque hay de aqui donde el agora esta, mas de 800 leguas;
abajo dice que paracen almaizares.

Thus he saw well-made multi-colored scarves or sashes, identical with those of

Sierra Leone, but because of the distance he thought that the two peoples
'ought not' to be in communication. Later Columbus stated that each American
wore scarves which resembled almaizares (Moorish sashes), one for the head
and one for the rest of the body. 29
Nonetheless, one of Columbus' motives in examining the area around
Trinidad was to
experimentar lo que decfan los indios desta Espanola, que habia venido a ella de la parte
del Austro y del Sueste gente negra, y que trae los hierros de las a<;agayas de un metal a
que Haman guanfn, de lo cual habia enviado a los reyes hecho el ensaye, donde se hall6
que de trienta y dos pantes, las diez y ocho eran de oro y las seis de plata y las ocho de
cobre.

Thus, Columbus wanted to verifY the truth of what the Americans of Haiti had
stated previously, to the effect that 'black people' had come from the south and
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 15
southeast and that their azagaya (spear) heads were made of guanin, a brass or
bronze-like mixture of gold, silver and copper.
Las Casas doubted the truth of one of Columbus' stories, about an island
with only women,
como lo que aquf dice que entendfa haber isla que llamaba Guanfn donde habia mucho
oro, y no era sino que habfa en alguna parte guanfn mucho, y esto era cierto especio
de oro bajo que llamaban guanfn, que es algo morado, el cual cognoscen por el olor
y estfmanlo en mucho.

Thus the existance of an island of Guanin where much gold was to be found
was also doubted. Probably in some region there was much guanin, which was a
base type of gold (oro), somewhat 'purplish' (morado), esteemed much by the
Americans and known by its smell. Significantly, the Americans of the Gulf of
Paria area possessed pieces of gold but it was 'muy bajo, que parescia
sobredorado' (very low-grade, appearing to be alloyed with, or gilded over silver
or base metal). No evidence of 'black people' was found in the Trinidad-Paria
region, the Americans being either of indio color or near-white, many being 'tan
blancos como nostros y mejores cabellos y bien cortados' ('as white as us and
better hair, well-cut') 30
Thus it seems likely that guanin was a base alloy or gilding of gold which was
quite common in the Caribbean region. It may well be that the 'black people'
who brought spears tipped with it to Haiti were only Americans painted black (a
common practice) and not Africans. (One must also remember that Columbus'
knowledge of American language was virtually non-existent.)
In 1464-5 Alviso da Ca' da Mosto wrote a description of his visit of a few
years before to the West African coast. He noted that the West Africans of the
kingdom of Senegal (to Cape Verde) were using azagaie (spears) with worked
and barbed iron heads, and that the Wolofs of Senegal obtained from Gambia
curved alfanges (swords) made of iron 'sem nenhum aco (azzale)', without steel.
He also noted that they did not have ships, nor were any seen, but those
Africans living along the river of Senegal and by the sea had some zoppoli, called
almadie (almadias) by the Portuguese (dugout boats), the largest of which
carried only three or four men and which were used for fishing, as noted:
Non hanno navilii ne mai li viddero, salvo dapoi che hanno avuto conoscimento de'
Portogallesi. Vero e che coloro che abitano sopra questo fiume, e alcuni di quelli che
stanno alle marine, hanno alcuni zoppoli, cioe almadie tutte d'un legno, che portano da
tre in quattro uomini al pili nelle maggiori, e con queste vanno aile volte a pescare, e
passano il fiume e vanno di loco a loco.-'ll

Only very small almadias were seen beyond Cabo Verde also and this,
coupled with the fact that the Cape Verde Islands were found to be
uninhabited, without any trace of occupancy, would seem to argue against much
West African marine navigation, at least in the years 1455-63. 32 The use of iron
spear-points also tends to argue against the accuracy of Columbus' information
relative to 'black people' reaching Haiti with spear-points of a softer metal.
16 Africans and Native A nzericans
(One should note that the Africans of the Cape Verde mainland were reported
as using bows and arrows, rather than spears, in the Ca' da Mosto narrative.)
It is possible that Columbus, who probably never did understand what the
Americans of Haiti were saying, was confused and that the guanin-using people
were different from the black people mentioned. On the other hand, the
evidence is perhaps unconvincing by and of itself.
There are, however, bits and pieces of data tending to at least provide some
support for West African voyages to the Americas. For example, Pedro Martir
de Angleria obtained information (at second hand), to the effect that in 1513
Vasco Nufiez de Balboa met members of a 'tribe of Ethiopians' in Panama.
While crossing the peninsula, Balboa reached the native village of Cuarecua on
the Caribbean side of the summit of the mountain and
encontraron alll esclavos negros de una region que dista de Cuarecua solo dos dfas, en
cual no se crfan mas que negros, y estos feroces y sobremanera crueles. Piensen que en
otro tiempo pasaron de la Etiopia negros a robar y que, naufragando, se establecieron en
aquellas montafias. Los de Cuarecua tienen odios intestino con esos negros, y se
esclavizan mutuamante o se matan.

Thus the Spaniards actually are said to have seen black slaves belonging to the
Americans but they learned that these slaves came from a totally black village
located two days' journey away, and they conjectured that the blacks had come
from Ethiopia (Black Africa) at some earlier date.
Lopez de Gomara also reports that when Nufiez de Balboa reached
Cuarecua he found algunos negros (some blacks) who were slaves of the
American ruler. The Spaniards could only learn that there were 'men of that
color close to there, with whom they have frequent war'. Lopez goes on to state
that 'these were the first negros which they saw in lndias, and I think that no
more have been seen since'. The negros were 'as of Guinea'. Lopez never visited
the Americas and his 1552 work is based on reports received in Spain. 33
Since Panama lies along the current coming westwards from Africa via
Trinidad, such a journey is quite possible. On the other hand, it is perhaps
more probable that these Africans were runaway slaves from Haiti who
conspired with their American hosts to fool the Spaniards about their origins.
(It was very common for Americans to concoct stories designed to fool the
Europeans, once the latter's avariciousness and imperialistic designs were
understood.) Runaway Africans had already joined the Americans on Haiti by
1502 and doubtless some would have tried to leave the island. (Nonetheless,
prevailing currents would probably have taken them towards Florida rather than
towards Panama, unless they knew how ·lo take advantage of American
navigational skills.)
A Jesuit also makes reference (in 1554) to his judgement that some
Ethiopians were living beyond the Amazon River region, 'in alia parte maris'
(Latin) or 'na outra banda do mar (Portuguese) but this was secondhand
information. Moreover, Black Africans are recorded as having escaped to the
forest from Bahia with the help of Americans who captured a Portuguese slave
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 17
ship prior to July 1559. 34 The 1554 account may indicate that Brazilian
Americans knew of the existence of Africa, rather than that Africans were in
America.
Thus we are left with intriguing possibilities, but with no hard evidence.
Thor Heyerdahl has noted that a rubber boat was able to travel from the Canary
Islands to the West Indies in recent times, but early sources tell us that the
Canary Islanders had 'no means of navigation'. 35 Thus, one sort of evidence
tends to balance out the other.
We are, however, still left with a number of significant problems, such as how
plants of the banana-plantain family reached the Americas and West Africa,
how certain species of cotton spread, whether the yam was present in the pre-
Columbian Caribbean, and so on. The spread of banana-plantain-pacoba is of
special significance, since it could not remain viable if carried in salt water. The
pacoba, a banana, was clearly indigenous to South America.
A Brazilian author states that 'if the banana was known in Asia and Africa, ·
what the first chroniclers called the pacoba, i.e., the "golden" banana, was
not. ' 36 About 15 3 5 a Portuguese pilot described the bananas of Sao T orne
Island, Africa. He states that 'they have commenced to plant' there and they are
called abe/lana: 'vi hanno cominciato a piantar quella erba che diventa in un anno
cosi grande che par arbore, e fa quelli raspia modo di fichi che in Alessandria di
Egitto, como ho inteso, chiamano muse; in detta isola la domandano abel/ana.'
In the 1520s Leo Africanus described the muse of Egypt, the same plant as
above. 37 A report on the Mina area (Ghana) in 1572 stated that bananas were
also planted there, 'which in the Indies of Castilla were called plata nos', and
also that near 'Agri' the bananas grew in thickets so that it seemed that no one
had to plant them there. 38
In Brazil bananas and pacobas were quite important in the food supply.
Bananas asadas (roasted bananas) were eaten by the Jesuits in 15 61 when the
wheat supply failed at Bahia, while the Jesuits at Espirito Santo in 1562 had
many fruits, 'especially that which is called bananas, which last all the year' and
is 'a great aid to the sustenance of this house' .39 When lands were donated for
the college of Bahia in 1563 one of the first tasks was to plant bananas on
them. 40
In the 1580s Gabriel Soares de Sousa stated of Brazil:
Pacoba e uma fruta natural d'esta terra, a qual se da em uma arvore muito molle e facil
de cortar ... na India chamam a estas pacobeiras figueiras e as fruto figos ... e a estas
pacobas chama o gentio pacobu<;u, que quer dizer pacoba grande.
Ha outra casta, que as indios chamam pacobamirim que quer dizer pacoba pequena.-n

Thus Brazil had several types of native bananas, called pacobas, some large and
some small, the latter being the size of fingers and called pacobamirim. The
large pacobas were said to be known in India as 'figs' and in Brazil as
pacobuzu.
Brazil also had, by the 1580s, bananas derived from Sao Tome of Africa,
which in India were said to be called figos de horta. 'Os negros de guine sao mas
18 Africans and Native Americans
affei<;ados a estas bananas que as pacobas, e d'ellas usam mas suas ro<_;as ... '
The negros of Guinea preferred the Sao Tome bananas to the pacobas. In the
1640s George Marcgrave, the young naturalist, described the Brazilian
varieties botanically. 42
Varieties of the banana-plantain family were widely dispersed throughout the
Caribbean region and descriptions of them date back to at least the 1530s. An
early English visitor to Barbados (1650s) has drawn pictures of the native
varieties on that island, while an English traveller among the Miskito people of
Nicaragua found in 1681 that one of their main agricultural plants was the
plantain (along with the yam). 43
The problem of the dispersal of the banana-pacoba by human action
demands more thorough study, but, in any case, it stands as a strong argument
for ancient maritime contact between the Americas and either Indonesia,
southeast Asia, Africa, or all of these. The dispersal of the sweet potato and
other crops from the Americas through the Pacific stands as a related
phenomenon. It should be noted that with the exception of American plants
being dispersed in the Pacific, virtually all writers dealing with the ancient
diffusion of crops and other cultural influences exhibit an extraordinary anti-
American bias. If a trait is, for example, found on both sides of the Atlantic most
diffusionists a priori favor an east-to-west dispersal and simply ignore any
possible influences from west to east. 44

KIDNAPPED AMERICANS IN EUROPE BEFORE 1492

In any case, Americans did not reach Europe and Africa solely by means of
voluntary voyages or storm -driven adventures. European expeditions to the
Americas are known to have taken thousands of Americans to the east, and
some of these involuntary journeys preceded the time of Columbus.
By the ninth century AD, the European frontier was advancing northwards
and westwards with Irish and Scottish hermits or monks reaching Iceland.
Close behind them were Norse-speaking settlers and raiders from Norway and
the various islands north of Scotland. Our knowledge of what happened in this
region is shrouded in mystery because the earliest detailed sources, the
Icelandic sagas, are of a much later date and are oriented towards the
adventures of particular individuals only.
According to the sagas, Greenland was not reached by the Norse until very
late in the tenth century, being named at that time by Eric the Red. On the
other hand, several bits of information might indicate earlier contact.
First, a papal bull attributed to 834-5 reportedly already mentions both
Iceland and Greenland. Secondly, a pale-colored woman with chestnut hair
was reportedly seen among the Americans of Vinland (Newfoundland) in
c. 1006. Thirdly, when the Norse reached Greenland in c. 985-6 they found
both towards east and west, traces of human dwellings as well as fragments of small
boats made of skin and such instruments of stone which made it clear that the same kind
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 19
of people had lived [or had journeyed] there, who had peopled Vinland and whom the
Greenlanders [Norse] call Skraelings.

Archaeology does not, thus far, support Inuit occupation of the south of
Greenland in the 900s although Inuits of the Dorset culture were there
in earlier times. Nonetheless, the remains seen by the Norse were clearly of
recent origin. This suggests that the abandonment of south Greenland
by Dorset people could have been due to raiding by Norse or Celtic pirates
in the years prior to 985. If so, it is conceivable that captives were carried
back to Europe since both the Norse and Irish possessed slaves in that
era.-+ 5
The Norse who settled in Greenland before AD 1000 made several journeys
westward to Markland (Labrador) and Vinland (Terranova or Newfoundland).
In 1009 they captured two young Americans in Markland and carried them
away to Greenland and, in all probability, to Norway. The Norse sagas state:
'Those boys they kept with them, taught them their language and they were
baptized. They gave their mother's name as Vaetilldi, that of the father as
Uvaegi. ' 46 Thorfinn Karlsefni, the owner of the captives, did not st~y long in
Greenland but sailed with all of his belongings directly to Norway in c. 1009,
later returning to Iceland. Since the Americans were his property and since the
information about their learning to speak Norse and being baptized is recorded
in an Icelandic saga, we must assume that they were taken to Norway with
Karlsefni and perhaps from there to Iceland. 47 Thus in the year 1010 or
thereabouts we have record of the first Americans to reach northern Europe
involuntarily in the late pre-Columbian period.
The Norse of Greenland and Iceland thereafter made visits to Markland to
obtain timber and other goods, one voyage being as late as 1347 (when their
very small vessel was blown from Markland to Iceland). The Greenland Norse
also began having military contacts with Inuit people in Greenland in the early
1300s and sporadic hostilities continued for a century or more. Since the Norse
had a history of using Irish and Scots as slaves, we can assume that a small
number of Inuit or other American captives would also be taken, even as several
Norse were captured by the Inuit. 48
It should be noted here that the 134 7 wind -driven voyage of 17 or 18 Norse
Greenlanders in a very small boat from the coast of Markland to Iceland, a boat
that was not even equipped with an anchor, tends to reinforce the possibility
that Americans in similar-sized craft could also be storm-driven to Europe.
Prevailing winds in the North Atlantic also sometimes drove Norse vessels
eastwards to Ireland.
In this connection, it is worth noting also that in old Shetlandic folk tales
'Finns' (Inuits) often arrived in those islands in the form of seals, and then
casting their skins aside, became human beings. It has been suggested that this
refers to the arrival of people in skin-covered kayaks. (Some folklorists prefer
other symbolic interpretations.) In any case, the presence of Inuits in kayaks
around the islands north of Britain will be discussed below. 49
l
l 20 Africans and Native A1nericans
Very little information exists from the fifteenth century but it appears that
Norwegians captured Inuits perhaps on more than one occasion, along with one
or more kayaks. Claudius Clavus Swart, a Danish geographer who drew his
maps in the 1420s, places in the Greenland area
the little pygmies, no more than one ell tall; I have seen them myself after they had been
caught at sea in a skin boat which now hangs in Nidaros Cathedral. In the cathedral
there is also a long boat of skin which was taken with the same kind of pygmies in it. 50

I A Norse report of the early 1200s also refers to the Inuit as 'very small
q people'. 51 For many years an Inuit boat was on display in Trondheim Cathedral
in Norway.
Thus, most certainly, we have a record of Inuits being in Europe in the early
1400s.
A century after Clavus Swart, a German Jacob Ziegler met some Danes and
Swedes in Rome and learned about the Pigmei predatores, or Inuit predators. 52
Other European nationalities also seem to have come into contact with
Americans before 1492. One author mentions a voyage to the Greenland-
Labrador area in the early 1OOOs allegedly made by some mariners of Friesland.
They were ·
,I cast on the rocks and took refuge on the coast. They saw some miserable looking huts
hollowed out in the ground, and around these cabins heaps of iron ore .... But as they
returned to their vessels, they saw coming out from these covered holes deformed men
as hideous as devels [sic], with bows and slings and large dogs following them. 53

One Frisian was slain while the others escaped.

Between c. 1418 and c. 1500 there is no official record of a Scandinavian ship
reaching Greenland, partly due to the depopulation of Norway and Iceland
carried out by the Black Death of 1348-9 (which may well have spread to
Greenland). After 1349 English and Scottish pirates began to raid Iceland and
Norwegian-Icelandic navigation fell into decline. Soon Basque and Portuguese
vessels were joining in the exploitation of Icelandic waters. They alternately
raided and traded with the Icelanders. 54 It appears also that some ships
(probably Basque or Breton) visited the surviving Norse in Greenland between
1400 and 1500 (since European goods of that period have been found in south
Greenland Norse archaeological sites). It is also believed by at least one
historian of Greenland that Basque 'pirates' may well have exterminated
or carried off the last Norse Greenlanders in c.l500. On the other hand,
European reports had it simply that a 'pagan and barbarous' fleet from
neighboring shores had carried them off, suggesting perhaps a move to
Newfoundland or Labrador. 55
Certain Basque traditions point towards their having made contact with
Newfoundland in the 1370s and Iceland by 1400. Maps of 1436 and 1448
definitely show a 'Stocfish Island' (Codfish or Bacalao Island) west of Iceland,
which undoubtedly is the same island which later came to be known as
Terranova or Newfoundland. Extensive pre-Columbian contact cannot be
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 21
doubted, even though there are arguments as to whether Basques, Bretons or
others first reached the area. 56
The subject is extremely interestiong for several reasons, one being the
possibility that captives from Newfoundland and/or Greenland were carried
back to the coasts of France and Spain.
It seems highly likely that vessels from Denmark and England reached
Newfoundland in the 1470s and 1480s but as there is no mention of Americans
being abducted we shall proceed to evidence relating to captives actually being
taken. 57
In November 1494 a German, Dr Jeronimo Munzer, wrote a letter about his
impressions of Lisbon, Portugal. He reported that there were many nigri
(blacks) in Lisbon and that the king of Portugal had sons of Ethiopian kings
with him for educational purposes. He also stated: 'Habet item rex nigros varii
coloris: rufos, nigros et aubnigros, de vario idiomate ... 0 Rei possuia pretos
de varios cores: acobreados, pretos e anegrados, e de linguas diferentes.'
Thus by late 1494 there were in Lisbon pretos or nigros (blacks, non-whites)
of various colors, including reddish or copper-colored people. sH These latter
were probably Americans, perhaps brought from the West Indies by Columbus,
from Brazil by an unknown Portuguese navigator, or, most likely, from
Newfoundland.
Interestingly, on January 11, 1503 a sailor from Lisbon presented for sale in
Valencia, Spain, five negros. One of them was 'Miguel, de 20 afios, de
Terranova, aspresado cuando era pequefio y llevado a Lisboa, donde lo
bautizan.' In 1505 was presented also (as a slave) 'Juan de 16 afios de
Terranova, no sabe si aun vivinin sus padres; cautivado cuando pequefio, fue
llevado a Portugal y luego a Castilla.' 59 Thus Miguel was born in 1483 and was
taken from Newfoundland to Lisbon when he was small, so probably before
1493. Juan was born in 1489 and was captured when small, so before 1499.
They are among many slaves from Terranova sold in Lisbon, Seville, and
Valencia after 1500.
It is well documented that in October 1501 some 50 or 60 Americans from
the Newfoundland region were brought as slaves to Lisbon. This was followed
by another shipload in 15 02. These could be the origin of the Terranova slaves
referred to above, except for the dates of their probable capture. 60

TAKING THE CARIBBEAN TO EUROPE AND AFRICA: COLUMBUS

AND THE SLAVE TRADE

In any case, by the 1490s Americans were appearing once again in European
cities. Although Terranova (Newfoundland) and Greenland continued to be a
source of captives from 1501 on, it is best at this point to turn away from
northern waters to examine the activities of Columbus and the catastrophic
slave trade in American flesh which he initiated in the Caribbean region.
Columbus seems not to have been the first bearded white navigator to have
20 Africans and Native Americans
Very little information exists from the fifteenth century but it appears that
Norwegians captured Inuits perhaps on more than one occasion, along with one
or more kayaks. Claudius Clavus Swart, a Danish geographer who drew his
maps in the 1420s, places in the Greenland area
the little pygmies, no more than one ell tall; I have seen them myself after they had been
caught at sea in a skin boat which now hangs in Nidaros Cathedral. In the cathedral
there is also a long boat of skin which was taken with the same kind of pygmies in it. 50

A Norse report of the early 1200s also refers to the Inuit as 'very small
people'. 51 For many years an Inuit boat was on display in Trondheim Cathedral
in Norway.
Thus, most certainly, we have a record of Inuits being in Europe in the early
1400s.
A century after Clavus Swart, a German Jacob Ziegler met some Danes and
Swedes in Rome and learned about the Pigmei predatores, or Inuit predators. 52
Other European nationalities also seem to have come into contact with
Americans before 1492. One author mentions a voyage to the Greenland-
Labrador area in the early 1OOOs allegedly made by some mariners of Friesland.
They were ·
cast on the rocks and took refuge on the coast. They saw some miserable looking huts
hollowed out in the ground, and around these cabins heaps of iron ore .... But as they
returned to their vessels, they saw coming out from these covered holes deformed men
as hideous as devels [sic], with bows and slings and large dogs following them. 53

One Frisian was slain while the others escaped.

Between c. 1418 and c. 1500 there is no official record of a Scandinavian ship
reaching Greenland, partly due to the depopulation of Norway and Iceland
carried out by the Black Death of 1348-9 (which may well have spread to
Greenland). After 1349 English and Scottish pirates began to raid Iceland and
Norwegian-Icelandic navigation fell into decline. Soon Basque and Portuguese
vessels were joining in the exploitation of Icelandic waters. They alternately
raided and traded with the Icelanders. 54 It appears also that some ships
(probably Basque or Breton) visited the surviving Norse in Greenland between
1400 and 1500 (since European goods of that period have been found in south
Greenland Norse archaeological sites). It is also believed by at least one
historian of Greenland that Basque 'pirates' may well have exterminated
or carried off the last Norse Greenlanders in c.1500. On the other hand,
European reports had it simply that a 'pagan and barbarous' fleet from
neighboring shores had carried them off, suggesting perhaps a move to
Newfoundland or Labrador. 55
Certain Basque traditions point towards their having made contact with
Newfoundland in the 1370s and Iceland by 1400. Maps of 1436 and 1448
definitely show a 'Stocfish Island' (Codfish or Bacalao Island) west of Iceland,
which undoubtedly is the same island which later came to be known as
Terranova or Newfoundland. Extensive pre-Columbian contact cannot be
22 Africans and N alive A 1nericans
reached the Caribbean region, but his immediate predecessor's name is
unknown and no record of any return voyage to European or North African
waters exists. 61 Moreover, Columbus' impact was singular in that he was, from
the first, a dedicated slaver and exploiter with an extremely callous and
indifferent attitude towards culturally different human beings.
Columbus on his first voyage kidnapped at least 2 7 Americans, two of whom
escaped, leaving a total of 25 in his hands. His attitude is expressed as follows,
when, after abducting seven males, he says: 'when your highnesses so
command, they can all be carried off to Castille or held captive in the island
itself, since with fifty men they would be all kept in subjection and forced to do
whatever may be wished.' Thus, at the very first island reached (Guananf),
Columbus already was able to express his willingness to depopulate the entire
island in order that the Americans might be sold as slaves in Europe, or held as
captives in their own land. This, it should be noted, is long prior to any
disappointment about the failure to find gold or other riches in quantity.
A month later, after capturing five boys, Columbus says:

afterwards I sent to a house which is near ... and they brought seven head of women,
small and large, and three boys. I did this, in order that the men might conduct
themselves better in Spain, having women of their own land ... because already it has
many times been my business to bring men from Guinea, in order that they might learn the
language of Portugal, and afterwards when they had returned and they thought that use
might be made of them in their own land ... when they reached their own land this
result never appeared ... So that, having their women, they will be willing to do that
which is laid upon them, and also these women will do much to teach our people their
language, which is one and the same throughout these islands of India. (Italics added)

After two boys escaped, Columbus stated: 'and I have no great confidence in
them, because many times they have attempted to escape.' His philosophy of
conquest and colonialism was extremely well developed: 'And they are fitted to
be ruled and to be set to work, to cultivate the land and to do all else that may be
necessary, and you may build towns and teach them to go clothed and to adopt
our customs.' Also: 'They would make good and industrious servants. '() 2
After learning of the existence of so-called 'Cannibal' (Carib) groups in the
Indies, Columbus began to emphasize the enslavement of the latter. While still
at sea, on his first return voyage, Columbus advocated the capture of Caribs:
'very fierce people and well proportioned and of very good understanding, who,
after being removed from their inhumanity, we believe will be better than any
other slaves whatsoever.' On January 30, 1494 he addressed to the Spanish
monarchs a plan for sending men, women, and children to Spain to learn the
Castillian language and to be trained in service, with more care 'than other
slaves' receive, saying that this plan would save a great number of souls while at
the same time providing the colonizing Spaniards with the profit needed to
supply themselves with goods. In other words, Columbus proposed (after his
first voyage) that American slavery be used to finance the conquest. 63
Subsequently, Columbus began to enslave Taino (Arawak) people who were
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 23
definitely not cannibalistic and it would appear that the idea of punishing Caribs
(for being allegedly so) was simply an expedient financial strategy. The logic of
his activities was well expressed by Las Casas who noted that
el acabani en muy poco tiempo de consumir toda la gente desta isla [Haiti], porque tenia
determinado de cargar los navios que viniesen de Castilla de esclavos y enviarlos a
vender a las islas de Canarias, y de los Azores y a las de Cabo Verde y adonde quiera
que bien se vendiesen; y sobre esta mercaderia fundaba principalmente los aprove-
chamientos para suplir los dichos gastos y excusar a los reyes de costa, como en principal
granjerfa.

Thus Columbus, according to las Casas, was determined to 'consume' the

entire population of Haiti by filling every ship with slaves to be sold in the
Canary, Azores and Cabo Verde islands or wherever, and planned that these
slaves would finance the conquest.
As Las Casas points out, for Columbus the lives of Americans were obviously
'nothing' and the continuous wars to obtain slaves were simply necessary to fill
the ships. 64 Columbus wrote to the monarchs that from Haiti
it is possible, in the name of the Holy Trinity, to send all the slaves which it is possible to
sell ... of whom, if the information which I have is correct, they tell me that one can sell
4,000 . . . . And certainly, the information seems authentic, because in Castille and
Portugal and Aragon and Italy and Sicily and the islands of Portugal and Aragon and the
Canaries they utilize many slaves, and I believe that those from Guinea are not now
enough .... In any case there are these slaves and brazilwood, which seem a live thing
[profitable], and still gold.
Thus, even as Columbus was loading five ships with slaves, he was proposin·g to
sell 4,000 in various parts of the Mediterranean and along the coast of Africa.
Columbus was also unconcerned that many Americans would die in the slave
trade because, as he said, the blacks and the native Canary Islanders when first
enslaved also had died in great numbers. For Columbus the Americans were
piezas (pieces) or cabezas de cabras (heads of goats), and it did not matter if only
ten per cent lived to reach a market, according to Las Casas (who, incidentally,
possessed Columbus' diaries, letters and notes).(>s
The shipment of Americans to Europe and Africa by Columbus (and by
other Spaniards) was, then, not an accident, nor was it a result of armed
resistance or alleged cannibalism. It was a direct extension of the style of
commercial slavery long practiced by the Genoese and Venetians in the
Mediterranean and used by the Portuguese along the west coast of Africa.
Columbus' voyages, in a very real sense, were mere extensions of the old galley
routes from Italy to North Africa and the Black Sea or of Portuguese routes
along the African coast.
What was the result? First, many thousands of Americans were shipped
to Spain during Columbus' period of dominance in the Caribbean. It is
difficult to calculate the exact number because many ships departed from Haiti
without leaving any record of their cargo, but we may be sure that they did not
leave empty. On the very first voyage, although Columbus only carried 25, it is
'I

24 Africans and Native A ntericans

likely that Martin Alonso Pinzon (who sailed to Galicia and then to Palos
separately) may have carried more. It is possible that Pinzon actually landed the
first Americans in Spain, a few days before Columbus arrived in Lisbon.
In any case, at least 3,000 Americans are known to have been shipped to
Europe between 1493 and 1501, with the likely total being possibly double that.
Most were sent to the Seville area, where they seem to show up in the slave
markets as negros without a place of origin being mentioned. Others were
probably sold in the Azores and other islands, partly to avoid the wrath of
Queen Isabel (who, on occasion, expressed hostility towards the dividing up of
'her' vassals without her prior permission). 66
Columbus reached Lisbon in early March 1493. Many people came to see
the captive Americans and it is very likely that some of the latter were taken nine
leagues into the interior to see the king of Portugal. There it was that two
Americans drew maps which showed the Lucayos (Bahamas), Cuba, Haiti, and
other islands. It may be also that Columbus left some Americans with the
Portuguese, as discussed earlier. 67
Shortly thereafter some of the Americans were taken to Seville, perhaps
seven to ten being still alive and together. Some were left in that area, while
about six or seven were taken overland across Spain to Barcelona where they
were displayed before the monarchs in mid-April. In the fall of 1493 some
Americans were taken on Columbus' second westward voyage, but only two of
these reportedly arrived alive. One was able to run away immediately upon
landing in Haiti. 68
The process whereby Columbus began loading ships with slaves need not
concern us here, in any detail. The flavor of it is conveyed by a report of Miguel
de Cuneo, a member of the second expedition:
When our caravels ... were to leave for Spain, we gathered ... one thousand six
hundred male and female persons of those Indians, and of these we embarked in our
caravels on Feb. 17, 1495, five hundred and fifty souls among the healthiest .... For
those who remained, we let it be known in the vicinity that anyone who wanted to take
some of them could do so, to the amount desired, which was done. And when each man
was thus provided with slaves, there still remained about four hundred, to whom
permission was granted to go where they wished. Among them were many women with
children still at suck. Since they were afraid that we might return to capture them once
again, ... they left their children ... and began to flee like desperate creatures.

About two hundred died on the voyage and were cast into the ocean, the rest
'•
being disembarked in Spain.
Columbus gave to Cuneo 'a very beautiful Carib woman'. Cuneo says, 'I
conceived the desire to take my pleasure' with her. She valiantly resisted
Cuneo's efforts at rape but eventually he had his way, after thrashing her
mercilessly. 69
Thus the veil of evil descended upon the Caribbean and many long years of
rape and genocide commenced. As Todorov has stated:
the sixteenth century perpetrated the greatest genocide in human history ... in 1500 the
 African-American Contacts, to 1500 25
world population is approximately 400 million, of whom 80 million inhabit the Americas.
By the middle of the sixteenth century, out of these 80 million, there remain ten.
If the word genocide has ever been applied to a situation with some accuracy, this is
here the case. 70
But the tens of millions of Americans who disappeared after 1492 did not all die
in the 'holocaust' inflicted within the Americas. Many thousands were sent to
Europe and Africa where their descendants still live.

~I
 2
The Intensification of Contacts:
Trans-Atlantic Slavery and
Interaction, after 1500

THE ARRIVAL OF AMERICAN SLAVES IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

It will perhaps be surprising to some readers to learn that the greatest degree of
intensive contact between Americans and Africans did not occur initially in
either the Americas or Africa, but rather in European cities such as Lisbon,
Seville, and Valencia. This contact has not heretofore been studied for a variety
of reasons, one of the principal ones being the myth that the enslavement of
Americans was a temporary phenomenon. Another reason, equally mythical, is
the notion that in modern times 'slavery' and 'negro slavery' were virtually
synonymous concepts.
Slavery was quite common in the Mediterranean world in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. In Iberia Islamic laws recognized slavery and Muslims
were even allowed to hold other Muslims as slaves if the latter were black or foro
(of intermediate color). 1 In Christian Barcelona one finds numerous slaves
between 1275 and 1288 classified as moro loru1n (Muslim of intermediate color),
sarraceno blanco (white Saracen), sarracenum nigrium (black Saracen), sarracenam
lauram (Saracen of intermediate color) and sarracenam a/bam (white Saracen).
In the thirteenth century, Barcelona had many tdrtaros (Tartars), Greeks,
Bulgarians, Bosnians, Albanians, and so on, as slaves, including an esclava
blanca tartara (white tartar slave). In the fourteenth century, Muslim slaves
became more common again, and one finds many white, foro (intermediate),
and black slaves. In 1439, Simon, an Ethiopian slave, killed a Russian (ruso)
slave. Turkish and Tartar slaves were also present, along with many Russians,
Bulgarians, sarts (probably Sardos or Sardinians), and others called Abguas,
Xarqueses (Circassians), and so on, probably from the Caucasus mountains. In
1429 two runaway black slaves were recaptured in Redome, France, but others
escaped to Tolosa (Toulouse) where slavery was not recognized. Between 1243
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 27
and 1296, of 50 slaves listed in Barcelona, 18 per cent were laurus, 10 per cent
were black, 20 per cent were Saracen only, and about 52 per cent were blanche
(white).
In Provence a 'Sarrazin noir, un esclave blanc, une fille circassienne', and
'un gan;on turc' were all sold as slaves in the fifteenth century. 2 This
characterizes slavery in the period, with white, black and brown, European,
African and Asian slaves being treated basically the same, and with a
tre1nendous ethnic variety - although most were from the Balkans, the Black
Sea region, or northern Africa.
In 1266-71 several olivastre (olive-colored) slaves were sold in Genes
(Genoa), while of 48 slaves named between 1401 and 1499 in that city, 25 were
albi (white), 15 neri (black), six olivegnii (intermediate or olive), one endeco
(indaco or Indian), and one Iauro (intermediate or brown). There were many
Tartar and other eastern slaves in Italy during that period, along with a
substantial number of blacks and others from North Africa and the Iberian
peninsula. 3
In Portugal slaves of Muslim background were present in the thirteenth
century along with some who were Mo(arabes (Christians who lived in an Arab
fashion). During the fourteenth century Porutuguese vessels began to raid the
Canary Islands and many canarios were introduced as captives, along with
additional Muslims. In the fifteenth century Berber and black Senegalese
(Wolof) slaves became common, especially after 1440-50. 4 During certain
periods the term sarraceni was synonymous with servi or captivi (slave or captive).
Maurus (moor) corresponded to a free or slave Muslim, while later slaves were
known as 'negro e guineu, pre to e sobretudo escravo'. 5 Thus, slaves as a class
might be called - depending on the time period - sarraceni or negro or preto, or
slave (slav).
Quite early, in both Portugal and Spain, the status of a child was determined
by the status of the mother. If the mother was a slave, the child was also a slave. 6
In the western Mediterranean the slave trade was dominated by the Genoese
and Castillians by means of slave factors in Fez, Morocco, but slaves from the
east were also introduced. In 1455, for example, a Tartar slave was mentioned
in Seville. At about that time, however, the Portuguese began to dominate the
black African trade by successfully reaching Agadir and then Senegal in the
mid-fifteenth century. In 1452, Pope Nicholas V permitted the Portuguese to
enslave infidels, pagans, and 'enemies of Christ'. By 1479 the Portuguese were
dominant insofar as black slaves were concerned, but canario and Muslim slaves
continued to be obtained by the Spanish directly. 7
For a long period of time Muslim slaves continued to arrive in Seville and
other Spanish cities, some from Granada and others from Algiers, Oran and
other places which were raided in North Africa. Canary Islanders were also
shipped in by the Spaniards who had replaced the Portuguese as the oppressors
of the canarios. Thus, all during the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, the slaves of the Iberian peninsula were of all colors and of many
nationalities including Greeks, Slavs, Turks, Egyptians, Asians, Indians,
 28 Africans and Native Americans
Americans, and so on. 8 A Portuguese expedition to the Gambia in 1457 took
with it an Indian interpreter, Jacob. 9
The Christian Castillians possessed slaves of many kinds in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centurties, most of whom were maures (moros) or morezno
(children of moros, perhaps moreno). Some were classified by color (white, black,
foro) as in Cataluiia, while a few in 1266 were called 1na1nelouks (slave in Arabic,
especially soldier-slaves). In 1475 a royal order established for Seville the
position of

Mayoral e Juez de todos los Negros e Loros, libres e captivos que estan e son captivos e
horros en la ... Sevilla, e en todo su Arzobispado; y que non pueden facer ni fagan los
dichos Negros y Negras, y Loros y Loras, ningunas fiestas nin juzgados de entre ellos,
salvo ante vos, el dicho Juan de Valladolid, Negro, nuestro Juez y Mayoral de los dichos
Negros, Loros y Loras; y mandamos que vos conozcais de los debates y pleytos y
casamientos . . . e non otro alguno, por quanto sois persona suficiento para ello . . . ;
e Nos somos informados, que sois de linage noble entre los dichos Negros. 10

Thus in 1475, Juan de Valladolid, a black of noble ancestry, was appointed as

the judge and mayor of the blacks and loros (browns) of the Seville area, with
authority over their communal life, whether they were free or slave.
This policy of self-government for blacks and browns conformed to the
established Castillian and Aragonese policies towards free Muslims and Jews,
each community of which had its own laws and courts separate from those of
the Christian community. This attitude of tolerance and autonomy was later
abolished but it set a direct precedent for later policies favoring American
autonomous pueblos in the Americas after the 1520s. In any case, American
slaves were probably integrated into the non-white community structure in
Seville.
Thus, the arrival of American captives after 1493 did not, in any sense,
present a new spectacle. Both Spaniards and Portuguese had become
accustomed to financing their wars and expeditions by seizing men, women and
children wherever possible. This is not to say that it was at all clear that all such
captives were legal slaves, especially if they were not taken in 'just war' but, in
practice, laws were often ignored. One finds, for example, Christians capturerd
by Muslims being treated as slaves in Spain if purchased from Muslim slave-
dealers. In the records which have been published from Seville and Valencia,
'possession' seems initially to have always been accepted as proof of the rights
to sell a slave and for the authorities to impose a tax on the sale. 11
f
Columbus was the major supplier of American slaves prior to 1500. As noted
II earlier, he caused son1e 3,000 to perhaps 6,000 slaves to be sent to Europe and
!' I
also, if we are to be believe that his plans were implemented, to the Azores,
Canary, Madeira, and Cabo Verde Islands. By the year 1500, however, a great
escalation began in the shipment of Americans across the Atlantic since other
Spaniards and the Portuguese became directly active.
In the year 1500, Americans were directly transported to Europe from the
Caribbean islands, from the coasts of South America, and from the Terranova
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 29
(Newfoundland) region. Three major new sources of slaves were thus opened
up and it is necessary to examine this subject before proceeding to an analysis of
what happened to the Amerians when they arrived in eastern lands.
As mentioned above, Gaspar Corte Real and Joao Fernandes were among
Portuguese navigators from the Azores who reached the Newfoundland-
Greenland area in 1500 or perhaps earlier. Fernandes may have taken captives
to the Azores but if so no record exists. In October 1501, however, Corte Real
sent some 57 captives to Lisbon. Their description is worth noting:

Les habitants son un peu plus grands que nous .... lis son tres semblables a des
tziganes; leur visage est peint a maniere des lndiens, quelques-uns avec six signes,
d'autres avec huit au moins. Les cheveux des males sont longs et flottants en boucles.
Leurs yeux de couleur presque verte ... les femmes ... leur couleur est plutot blanche,
le male, au contraire est beaucoup plus fonce.

Thus, the Americans were slightly taller than the European observers. They
resembled Gypsies with their faces marked in signs like those of the 'Indians'.
The hair of the males, who were darker than the females, was long and curly,
and their eyes were greenish in color. (Thus it is quite possible that these
Americans were part Norse Greenlander or part Breton or Basque.)
We do not know exactly where these green -eyed Americans came from;
whether from Newfoundland or Labrador, however, they were in possession of
I what appeared to be part of a sword and jewelry manufactured in Italy. This
;
{,

tends to confirm early contact with Europe, as discussed above. 12

In 1501, Miguel Corte Real sailed back to the Terranova region, where he
disappeared. One of his ships returned to Portugal, with 'certain men and
I women whom he found'. In 1503 the Portuguese sent out two ships and
thereafter the Newfoundland area was visited regularly, so much so that in
J 1506 a royal tax was imposed on the fishing catch. 13 The Bretons, English
and perhaps Basques were also active in the area, but that will be discussed
j below.
Slaves from Terranova show up in the slave-markets of Seville and Valencia
I very soon after 1500. In Valencia during the period to 1516, we find in 1503
Miguel (age 20) and Manne (age 10); in 1505 Juan (16) and Pedro (16); in 1507
! Antonio (8) and Juan Amarco (18); in 1515 Ali, now Melchor (20); in 1516
Catalina (28). These eight slaves were, with one exception, all obtained from
Portuguese sources. They were all classified as negros with the exception ofJuan
and Pedro, called simply slaves. 14
In Seville, between 1510 and 1515, some 13 Terranova slaves were registered
and sold, including: in 1510 Isabel (age 20), Cristobal (age 20), Virgida (17);
in 1511 Pedro (20), Anton (25), Felipa (14); in 1512 Pedro (25), Catalina (18),
Anton (25); in 1513 Fernando (20) and Maria (25); in 1514 Francisca (14), and
in 1515 Maria (20). Two of these slaves were categorized as negro, one as !oro,
and ten as slaves only. 15
In 1525 a Spaniard, Esteban Gomez, made a voyage up the Atlantic coast of
North America, bringing back 'many Indians' as slaves. Allegedly, they were set
 30 Africans and Native A rnericans
at liberty but perhaps some Terranova slaves after 1525 were derived from
Gomez' voyage. 16
Interestingly, between 1548 and 1560, some 20 slaves from Terranova
appeared in Peru (out of 256 who can be identified geographically in the
records). Between 1560 and 1650 about 143 slaves from Terranova showed up
in Peru, coming by way of Iberia probably. An additional 11 were classified as
bozales (not familiar with the Spanish language or culture at all). 17
The location of Terranova has heretofore been a matter of debate, with
writers generally placing it somewhere on the west coast of Africa. On the other
hand, there is very strong evidence that Terranova was, at least in the first half of
the sixteenth century, Newfoundland. 18
First, Antonio Brasio in his collection of Portuguese missionary documents
and royal communications relating to Africa (1471-mid-1500s) does not
I
mention any place called Terranova. 19 On the other hand, in a contract written
I~ in the Canary Islands in 1543 a reference is indeed made to a black slave as
being a 'native of Terranova de Guinea' .20 I will argue, however, that whenever
Terranova is mentioned without de Guinea it refers to Newfoundland.
First, although the Portuguese referred to Brazil as Ia Terra nuova (the new
land) in 1500, thereafter they virtually always used Terranova for Newfound-
land. Documents relating to Terra Nova were found in the Torre do Tombo in
Portugal and Terra Nova is used repeatedly by Portuguese sources of the
sixteenth century for Newfoundland or Cape Breton. The Ruysch map of
c.1508 has Terra Nova on it and reflects Portuguese nomenclature. Many other
maps, including that of Verrazano (1524-9) also use Terra Nova for
Newfoundland. This usage persisted so that in the 1630-46 period Brazilian
Portuguese were referring to 'o comericio com a Terra Nova' in codfish.
There was regular trade in fish between Terra Nova and Recife in Brazil. 21
For the Spanish Terranova was used consistently for Newfoundland. Early
maps used by the Spanish, such as the Oliveriana (1503), the Pesaro chart
(1503-8) and the Ruysch map (c.1508) located Terra Nova (Terra Noba) at
Newfoundland. The Ribero map of 1529 places Tiera Nova: de Cortereal near
I Cape Breton. In 1511 Spanish royal correspondence relates to a voyage to
jl
Tierra Nueva, using Breton pilots. This usage continued, as Martin Navarette
(1829) entitled a section of his work 'Sobre las navegaciones de los vascongados
a los mares de Terranova'. He cites documents from 1561 referring to
Newfoundland as Tierranueva and Terranova. Finally, La Farga Lozano in his
work on the Basques uses Terranova for Newfoundland without qualification,
including references from the 1690s. 22
i.
The French, it may be added, also used Terre-Neuve or Terre Neuvfe
consistently for Newfoundland. 23 Thus, we must, it seems, acknowledge the
fact that for the Spanish, Portuguese, and French, Terranova was the proper
name for Newfoundland (or for the Newfoundland-Cape Breton area) and that
slaves from Terranova would have to have been from that area unless specified
~
!
as being from the very obscure Terranova de Guinea (especially before
I~ c.1540).
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 31
It should also be noted that Terranova fell outside of the realm of Spain (in
practice) and for a time was thought to be within the Portuguese sphere. In fact,
Portuguese under Joao Alvarez Fagundes attempted to colonize the area in the
1520s, but the attempt failed.H
The Tabios people from Terranrrva (being often described as 'sooty' or dark-
colored) might well be regarded sometimes as negros rather than as indios (this
will be discussed in a later chapter). 25 Americans were usually regarded. as
pardos (Portuguese) or loros (Spanish) in terms of color in the early period
(1492-early 1600s), but negro was also used for them. 26
The Terranova slave trade helps to explain the early depopulation of
Newfoundland and the ease of the subsequent extinction of the American
native inhabitants by the English.
The second source of slaves after 1500 was the Caribbean region which, very
soon, included the adjacent coasts of South America, Florida-Carolina, and
Meso-America. Many Americans were taken as slaves to the east, to Spain and
to the Canary Islands, often as a result of the direct authorization of the Crown.
In 1499, for example, Vicente Yaiiez Pinzon was authorized to discover islands
and mainland in 'the Indies' and permission was given to take 'all manner of
slaves, negros, loros or others, who in Spain are held as slaves': 'vos fasemos
merced de toda manera desclavos negros o loros o otros de los que en espaiia
son tenidos por esclavos e que por razon lo deven ser.' Moreover, the
authorization given by Ferdinand and Isabella to Rodrigo de Bastidas, June
1500, allowed for the importation of slaves to Spain who were 'negros and loros
who in the kingdoms of Castilla were held and reputed for slaves' of whom the
Crown was to receive a quarter share. A similar clause was inserted in another
authorization of the same year.
Speaking of the late 1499-1503 expeditions to northern South America, Jose
Antonio Saco states 'that one of the objects of these expeditions was that of
robbing human beings in order to sell them as slaves'. The expeditions were to
obtain slaves from among the negros and!or loros who lived in the discovered
lands. As we shall see in a later chapter, /oro was regularly applied as a color
term for Americans while negro was also used (but in this case the usage meant
simply that any brown or black people found could be enslaved if people of
similar status were already held as slaves in Spain).
A series of voyages then ensued, including that of Alonzo de Ojeda who, in
1500, disembarked more than 200 American slaves at Cadiz. Amerigo Vespucci
also reports having sold more than 200 Americans in Spain but some
authorities feel he was simply reporting on the Ojeda expedition. In 1500 Yaiiez
Pinzon captured 3 6 Americans in northern Brazil as well as some from other
places. These were landed at Palos, Spain, where a legal dispute ensued.
It seems that Pinzon had promised one slave from his expedition to a Diego
Prieto. When he did not receive a slave, Prieto seized one of the American
slaves of Pinzon in Palos. In order to settle the dispute Pinzon offered to pay
Prieto the value of another common slave and the king commanded that this be
done. This royal decree of June 20, 1501, sho\vs that the Crown was ready to
 32 Africans and Native Americans
accept the enslavement of Americans in Spain, in spite of several exceptions
noted elsewhere.
In 1499 Diego de Lepe also departed from Palos and proceeded to enslave
Americans in the Amazon region and the gulf of Parfa. The slaves were turned
over to Bishop Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca in Spain. Interestingly, an American
from Marafion (Maranhao or the Amazon) showed up in Seville in 1500. He
was named Pastor, age 13 or 14, color foro, and sold for 10,000 maravedis.
In 1501 Cristobal Guerra and his brother Luis brought a large number of
slaves from Paria, the Isla Margarita and other areas to Spain. These slaves
benefited, however, from an order to enslave only Americans taken in 'just war'
and Guerra was ordered to return them at his own cost. On the other hand, in
1503 Juan de Ia Costa sailed to the Cartagena region, seized 600 Americans,
the majority of whom were sent to Spain with Luis Guerra, brother (or other
relation) to Cristobal Guerra. Costa went on to seize other Americans in the
Gulf of Uraba.
It would appear that if the Americans resisted (as many did) then 'just war'
could be alleged and enslavement became legal. Moreover, as a result of the
above incidents, in which several Spaniards were killed, ·the Crown was
persuaded in 1503 to authorize the enslavement of the alleged caribes of
Cartagena. In 1504 a royal decree stated that 'rebel Indians' were to be enslaved,
a portion going to the Government. With the death of Isabel that same year no
restraint existed. (In 1512, for example, Ferdinand authorized the enslavement
of Borinquen natives, with an 'F' being branded on their 'fronts' and with a fifth
part going to the crown.) 27
After 1510 Spanish slave-raiding reached out increasingly towards the outer
islands of the Caribbean and the adjacent mainlands. Much of the raiding was
designed to meet the labor needs of Haiti (where the native population was
being greatly reduced), but numerous Spanish expeditions such as those of
Magellan (1519), Sebastian Cabot (1529, to Brazil), and Gomez (1525)
captured Americans who were taken to Spain or who died en route. Cabot also
purchased 50 to 60 slaves from the Portuguese in Brazil, for later sale in Seville.
By the 1520s slave-raiding in Florida and the Carolina coast area was common
also. zH
It is not necessary here to review all the data relative to the enslavetnent of
Americans in Panama, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, and other
countries, but there is sufficient evidence to indicate that, at least through the
1550s, large numbers of slaves were procured and shipped to various
'I locations. 29
Saco notes that King Ferdinand had been considering the large-scale
introduction of American slaves into Spain. In a dispatch of July 3, 1510 he
asked several royal officials what profits might be derived from shipping slaves
for sale in Spain. But the rapid decline in the native population of Haiti forced
Ferdinand to change his opinion. By decree of July 21, 1511, Ferdinand
ordered Columbus that no American slaves could be sent to Castille; this was to
prevent the depopulation of the islands. Because the Spaniards did not abide by
 ' ;. .. :£.y . /' >'

The Intens£~;it~~/~~nt~ts, afie;~SrJo . 33

the order (as was customary, according to Saco) the king strengthened his
opposition in 1512, imposing a fine and the loss of the slaves sent. This order
was also not completely obeyed and other orders had to be issued in 1528,
1543, and 1556.
But the Crown also vacillated in its policies. An order of 15 26 prohibited the
capture of natives and their shipment to Spain without license. They were to be
returned unless the license had been obtained. In 1530 further American
enslavement was prohibited; however, violations were common and the ban was
lifted in 1534. Two years later a decree again prohibited the shipment of
American slaves to Spain unless accompanied by a document issued by the
provincial governor giving his approval. A decree of 1543 prohibited the taking
of free or slave Americans from one province to another in the Indies.
Efforts were also made to enforce some of the above provisions. In 1529 the
officials of Seville were ordered to facilitate the verification of the legal status of
Americans introduced there. In 1531 arriving ships were to be examined for
clandestine slaves. Decrees of 1536 and 1538 ordered the examination of the
proof of slave status. Finally in May 1549 the officials of Seville were
commissioned to liberate the Americans in Spain (in a manner similar to what
was then being attempted in the Americas). 30
Especially in the years around 1500 some Americans were actually freed and
returned to the Caribbean from Spain, but the numbers seem few in
comparison with those actually shipped.
In 1541 the bishop of Santa Marta (now Colombia) wrote to Emperor
Charles V that in that region
se habian vendido publicamente muchos indios exportados del Peru, y que los
castellanos que alli tenian repartimientos vendian sus indios sacando otros muchos para
Castilla con el objeto de servirse de ellos lo cual se hada con facultad de los que
gobernaban.
Thus, Spaniards were exporting American slaves from Peru to Colombia and
many were being sent to Spain, with the help of officials (and in spite of laws to
the contrary).
The New Laws of 1542 which supposedly ended several forms of American
slavery did not immediately result in the suspension of the slave trade or in the
shipment of Americans to Spain. On December 18, 1547 a royal official wrote
from Santo Domingo that
contra el mandado de Vuestra Magestad se sacan indios, especialmente mujeres, y se
venden publicamente en Sevilla, y de do llevan muchos de 'Tierra Firme d6 se venden en
almoneda. De consentirlo en Sevilla nace el atrevimiento de aqui.
Thus in 1547 American slaves, especially females, were still being sold in
Seville and the acceptance of such sales in the latter city gave birth to the
impudence of Spaniards in the Indies (who continued to ship American slaves
in defiance of the laws). During this period the northern coast of South
America seems to have served as a major source of slaves, with slave ships
arriving at Haiti from Paria and Cumana as late as 1544.-11
 34 Africans and Native ./1 mericans
Clearly, the legislation enacted by the Spanish Crown at various times to
control or prevent certain types of American enslavement was only partially
effective. One of the major objectives of the early legislation was to prevent the
diminishing of the labor pool in the Indies by shipments to Europe rather than
to end slavery as such. Much has been made by writers of the significance of
this legislation but even the famous laws of 1542 did not bring an end to
enslavement. First, it must be noted that the Spaniards developed several
categories of 'partial slaves', categories which continued to allow for effective
enslavement. Thus, there were naborias (slaves who could not be resold),
'useless' Americans (natives who could be moved from an island without gold to
a place of labor shortage), 'apportioned' Americans (natives who were
apportioned to Spaniards as laborers or, later, as tribute-paying retainers),
··~
chichimecos (natives of dispersed living settlements who could be forcibly
reduced to missionary control and mandatory labor), and rebeldes (such as all
alleged 'caribs', the Mapuches of Chile, and others who could be legally
enslaved at various times even after 1542), all of which allowed for quasi-slavery
or actual slavery to continue to exist. 32
An Italian, Girolamo Benzoni, was in the Indies from 1541 to 1556. He later
wrote that:

All the slaves that the Spaniards catch in these provinces are sent to Cubagua .... The
slaves are all marked in the face and on the arms by a hot iron with the mark of C [for
caribe?] ... when ships arrive from Spain, they barter these Indians for wine, flour,
biscuit, and other requisite things. And even when some of the Indian women are
pregnant by these same Spaniards, they sell them without any conscience. Then the
merchants carry them elsewhere and sell them again. Others are sent to the Island of
Spagnuola [Haiti], filling with them some large vessels built like caravels.

Benzoni also noted that: 'although an almost infinite number of the inhabitants
of the mainland have been brought to these islands as slaves, they have nearly
all since died.' 33
As we shall see, some Americans were still being shipped to Europe by
Spaniards in this period, even though labor shortages (more than royal decrees)
operated to favor their being retained in the Americas. It was primarily Cuba,
Haiti, and Borinquen which absorbed Mayas from Yucatan, Huastecas from
Mexico, Miskitos from Nicaragua, and various other nations during this era,
rather than Spain itself.
Note should also be made of the many Americans sent to Spain in capacities
other than that of slave. Many were sent to become interpreters or to be
instructed and baptized. Others went as curiosities or as entertainers. In 1528,
for example, I-lernan Cortes took a group of Aztec and Tlaxcalteco chiefs,
including a son of Montezuma II, to Spain along with a troop of jugglers,
acrobats, and dancers. These also were taken to the court of Pope Clement VII
in Rome. A different kind of figure was Juan Santos Atahualpa of Peru, taken to
Spain and Angola by the Jesuits. Later Atahualpa led a major rebellion in Peru,
one feature of which was the use of black African allies. Part of eastern Peru
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 35
(the Campa region) remained liberated for many years as a result of
Atahualpa's efforts. 34

THE PORTUGUESE ENSLAVEMENT OF AMERICANS IN BRAZIL

AND ELSEWHERE

A third region which served as a major source of slaves for Europe and Africa
was the coast of Brazil.
In 1500 Pedro Alvares Cabral, sailing to India, touched along the Brazilian
coast. It appears that at least one American was sent back to Portugal with
Gaspar de Lemos. 35 This initially friendly contact was not to last, however,
since the king of Portugal seems to have envisioned the coast of Brazil as a
second slave-coast, to be harvested in the manner of West Africa. In 1502 he let
a contract to Fernao de Noronha and a company of merchants 'to trade in
brazilwood and slaves'. They were to send to Brazil six ships each year. Four
ships were sent in 1503 and they returned to Portugal full of wood and slaves. It
is known that the trade was fairly regular after 1504. From the very beginning,
then, Americans were acquired as a commodity and shipped to Europe, as well
as perhaps to Africa.
Portuguese slavers may have also ventured into regions claimed by Spain. In
July 1503 a letter reached the Spanish court with the news that Portuguese
ships had gone to the area discovered by Rodrigo Bastidas (part of Colombia
and Panama) 'y traido esclavos indios y palo del Brasil' (and carried off
American slaves and brazilwood).
In 1511 the Portuguese ship Bertoa, with two negros and one non-negro slave
on board, carried some 35 American slaves from Brazil to Portugal. Another
ship in the following year was described as having the deck loaded with young
men and women. From then on there are frequent reports of Americans being
taken to Portugal, some for showing to the king and some for more ordinary
servitude. As Capistrano de Abreu noted, 'o Brasil exportou escravos ante de
importa-los' (Brazil exported slaves before it imported them). 36
As noted above, Cabot was able to purchase 50 or 60 slaves from the
Portuguese of San Vicente (Santos) in 1529, for resale in Spain. The
Portuguese of this area, intermarried with prominent Tupiniquin leaders, were
already actively exploiting inter-American rivalries, especially with the Tam6io
of Rio de Janeiro (allied with French traders) and the Carij6 (Guarani) to the
south.
The Portuguese Crown in the 1530s authorized the creation of about 12
feudal domains in Brazil. Each of the grantees (donatarios) was entitled to
enslave as many Americans as were needed for local labor, but only 24 per year
(48 for one donatorio) could be sent to Portugal by each for sale. This
authorization continued until 1549 and allowed about 216 slaves to be sent each
year for some 15 years, for a potential total of 3,240 or more. Of course,
Portuguese laws were frequently not enforced in the colonial areas and many
 36 Africans and Native Americans
more slaves may have actually been transported, especially since American
slaves could legally be used without limit to man the ships for the passage to
Portugal.
The Portuguese began quite early to try to find markets for Brazilians outside
of the Portuguese Empire. In 1538 three Portuguese ships reached Borinquen
with 45 Portuguese and 140 American slaves and a few free Americans. A
Portuguese captain later proposed to ship Brazilian slaves to Haiti, and initially
six or seven were sent. In 1550, however, Charles V resolved not to allow the
introduction of Brazilians as slaves. Some years later, a Portuguese ship
reached the island of Margarita with 300 American male and female slaves.
They were sold but in 1556 the Spanish Crown ordered the guilty to be
punished for violating the law. On the other hand, in 1570 consideration was
given to authorizing the importation into the Spanish colonies of Brazilian
slaves enslaved by other Americans. This category of slave (as well as caribes,
that is, alleged cannibals) could be imported.
In any case, one can see that between the 1530s and 1570s, the Portuguese
were actively attempting to market American slaves far and wide. 37
Within Brazil, the enslavement of Americans proceeded very rapidly,
primarily for use in the sugar cane and cotton industries. Letters of the
I
!: donatarios between 1535 and 1550 document this process, as in 1545 when Pero
de G6is wrote to the king that in the fields and sugar refineries of Sao Tome
there were enough slaves. The population of San Vicente in 1548 included 600
free persons and more than 3,000 American slaves, according to a letter ofLuiz
de G6is. 38
In 1549 the Jesuits began preaching to the Americans, free and slave, as well
as to the mamalucos (mixed-bloods) and Portuguese. Their letters, from 1549
on, contain frequent references to the 'escravos da terra' (American slaves) who
were very numerous. 39
A few black Africans (escravos da Guine) began to be introduced in the
Pernambuco area where, from the beginning, they worked together with
i American slaves. In 1548, for example, Hans Staden found 'Moren und
L Prasilianische Schlaven' ('Moores' and Brazilian slaves) used together against
)i
an enemy group. (These 'Moores' could have been Tapuya slaves, however.)
Two years later, in San Vicente, Staden frequently mentioned American slaves
(usually Carij6s) and said that the Portuguese had 'many'. 40 Ulrich Schmidl,
who passed through the same region in 1553, carried 20 Carij6s to Lisbon with
him, where two of them died. He very likely took some of the remainder on with
'I
him to Antwerp. 41
The development of the sugar industry created increasing labor demands
and Africans began to be taken to Brazil regularly after 1550-70. For the next
50 years, however, Americans continued to be a source of labor even in the
sugar industry, being only gradually outnumbered by Africans and American-
African mixed-bloods. In 1584, for example, the Pernambuco area had 60 or
more sugar refineries 'com muita gente branca, Negros da Guine e Indios da
terra'. Bahia had some 40 refineries, with 'Portugueses, Indios da terra e
l The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500
I Negros de Guine'. To the south of Bahia only American slaves were mentioned
37

I as forming the labor force in 15 84. 42

Especially in the southern and northern parts of Brazil (Sao Paulo-San
I Vicente and Para-Maranhao) and in the interior, the enslavement of
Americans continued to be the major source of labor for centuries. Between
I 1630 and 1650, for example, from 100,000 to 200,000 Americans from the
Paraguay region were enslaved and sold in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and
elsewhere. 43
I In 1570 the Portuguese Crown attempted to limit the enslavement of
Americans to those captured in armed combat or those from certain specified
I nations such as the Aimores. In 1587 enslaved Brasis (Americans) were to be

l seen as free workers, serving for a term whether fixed or otherwise. In 1595,
Philip II, ruler of both Spain and Portugal, prohibited enslavement except in a
war which he declared. None of these measures eliminated native slavery,
I however, and it increased greatly again during the 1630s. 44
Under the conditions of labor shortage in Brazil after c.15 80 it would appear
I that the shipping of Americans to Portugal would have declined in significance.
But we must keep in mind that the Portuguese had to have a way to pay for
African slaves and also, perhaps, sometimes wanted to be rid of potentially
rebellious Americans. C. R. Boxer noted that as late as c.1719 the Portuguese of
the Piaui region were trading 'three or four redskins ... for one Negro from
Angola'. In that area the Americans were 'disliked and despised'. It is possible,
I therefore, that 'cheap' American slaves (captured in slave raids) were sent to
Africa and Portugal, in exchange for Africans. 45
I In 1578 an Italian living in the Portuguese Empire wrote that Brazilian
natives were not then being imported into Portugal because they 'sono gente
I cattiva e ostinata e como e si veggono schiavi, si deliberano di morirsi, en viene
loro fatto'. We must, however, view this assertion of obstinacy and self-
I destruction within the context of the continuing enslavement of hundreds of
thousands of Americans in Brazil itself as well as in relation to the possibility
that the women and children might have been more easily transformed into
I slaves than were adult males. In any case, Chief Martin of the Carij6 nation
complained to the Spanish in 1576 that the Portuguese of southern Brazil were
carrying their children off to 'other parts of Brazil and then to Portugal to be
sold as slaves'. A Jesuit witnessed, in 1635, a slave-raid using 15 sea-going
ships and many large canoes, designed reportedly to secure 12,000 slaves from
the Carij6 nation. One must suppose that many were to be secured for sale
outside Brazil. 46
We can, I think, be confident that Americans soon appeared in the
Portuguese colonies in Africa and in the Cabo Verde Islands. The high death-
rates on Portuguese sailing vessels of the period would make necessary the
replenishing of crews in Brazil and, at a somewhat later date, the use of the
Brazilian natives and mixed-bloods in the African trade in various capacities.
It may well be that Americans were introduced into the Portuguese African
outposts soon after 1500. As noted above, Fernao de Noronha was given a
 38 Africans and Native Americans
contract to ship slaves and brazilwood from Brazil, beginning in 1502. John
Vogt states of Noronha (called Loronha): 'during 1502/3 this merchant's
involvement with San Jorge da Min a [Ghana] included supplying all slaves and
wine to the port. Simultaneously, Loronha held leases for Brazil and the
Guinea pepper monopoly.' Most of the slaves taken to Mina were gathered
together on Sao Tome island but it seems highly likely that Noronha would
have utilized some of the Brazilian slaves he acquired in his African activities, at
the very least as mariners and laborers.
A Brazilian scholar, Jose Hon6rio Rodrigues, has written that: 'from the
seventeenth to the nineteenth century Brazil had more contact with and greater
bonds to Angola, Dahomey, and parts of the coasts of Min a and Guinea than
did Portugal itself.... Many Brazilians went to Angola as soldiers, peddlers,
businessmen, prostitutes, and exiles.' 47
It will be very interesting to trace the first Brazilian American impact directly
upon Africa but doubtless it is more or less simultaneous with the first African
impact upon Brazil. By the 1550s native Brazilians were in Portugal in some
numbers and at about the same time the regular shipment of Africans to Brazil
commenced. The Brazil-Africa trade at first went largely via Portugal but
gradually became direct. 48
Portuguese vessels were noted for having crews of diverse national and racial
origins. From Madagascar to Japan, crews were often of African or Indian
(South Asian) origin but in the Atlantic we can assume that a high proportion
were of American background. Just what percentage is not certain.
Black Africans reached Macao and Japan in the sixteenth century in
Portuguese ships but it is also possible that a few Americans or part-Americans
reached the east coast of Africa and then went to the Far East. Japanese
drawings of the Portuguese at Nagasaki show many Africans but also a few
brown men of possible Indian (Asian or American) appearance. 4 ()
An early instance of a person of American ancestry being in the western
Pacific is seen in the case of the son of Juan Carvajo (Carvalhos), who was left
' ·~
behind on the island of Borneo near Burne in July 1521. The father, a
Portuguese accompanying Magellan, had lived for four years in Brazil and there
his son had been born, of an American mother certainly. Carvalhos had taken
the son with him to Europe, where both later joined the Magellan expedition.
Young Carvalhos remained in Borneo after becoming lost, while his father
remained in the Moluccas.
An interesting example of a person of American ancestry going with the
Portuguese to Africa, India and the Far East can be seen in the career of
Antonio de Albuquerque de Coelho (1682-1746) a Brazilian-born man who
served as governor of Macao, Goa, and in East Africa between 1700 and 1746.
Albuquerque's mother, Angela de Bairros, was from Pernambuco and had
'white, negro and Amerindian blood ... in about equal proportions'. The fact
that he was of mixed race and born out of wedlock did not prevent
Albuquerque's rise to fame and fortune, and his case is certainly not unique.
Because of the rarity of Portuguese women in Brazil, we must assume that a
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 39
high percentage of Brazilians who later served in Africa and Asia were of at
least part-American racial background. 50
Some Americans were utilized as military auxiliaries to Portuguese soldiers
as well. In 1641 auxiliaries were to be sent from Bahia and Rio de Janeiro to
reinforce the troops in Angola, and in 1644 the king approved a project to send
Henrique Dias with non-white auxiliaries from Bahia to Angola. Dias was
needed instead in Brazil to fight the Dutch but in 1645 an expedition left Rio de
Janeiro for Angola. Again in 1648-9 some 2,000 men were sent from Rio de
Janeiro to Angola. The Portuguese troops in Angola were accompanied in their
campaigns by 'auxiliary native troops' and thus we can be confident that the
Brazilian contingents included persons of American origins. 51
After 1650 Angola was virtually a colony of Brazil and we can be sure that
many persons of American ancestry went there. In addition to the normal kinds
of contact, Angola was used as a place for sending Americans and other persons
who proved troublesome in Brazil. In Ceara, for example, mixed-blood and
American 'undesireables were periodically rounded up and shipped off to
Angola' (1720s onward). After about 1740 the island of Fernao de Noronha
was also used 'as a dumping ground for such people'. In the south of Brazil
Americans and other non-whites were deported to Angola for gold-smuggling
or for using a route passing through a region exposed to attack by free American
forces (1720s). 52
Quite eatly, Americans were used in the settlement of Fernao de Noronha
island. In 1602 a Portuguese man was residing on the island with 13 or 14
negros. In 1612 a French vessel found only 'a Portuguese, with a few Tapuyas of
both sexes'. The French removed the Americans to Maranhao. 53 (The
Portuguese generally referred to Tupi-speaking Americans of coastal Brazil as
Brasis or Brazilians, while the non-Tupi nations were often referred to
collectively as Tapuyas.)

AMERICAN SLAVES IN EUROPE AND AFRICA

Now we shall examine data relating to the Americans who arrived in Europe
and along the coast of West Africa, beginning with Portugal. The impact of
Americans upon Portuguese life has not been studied although Camoens in his
epic poem Lusiadas refers to the tristes brasis (sad Brazilians) arriving in Lisbon.
Moreover, there exists a painting from the early 1500s wherein a Portuguese
artist substituted a Brazilian (in native dress) for 'the black king' in hisAdora(iio
dos Reis Magos (Adoration of the Holy Kings). 54
In 1552 or thereabouts Lisbon had some 10,000 slaves out of a population of
100,000, including Asians, south Asians, Muslims, black Africans, Americans,
and others. A Flemish priest wrote in 1535 that 'todo o servico e feito por
negros e mouros cativos' (all service is done by captive negros and Muslims). In
1552 a Brazilian slave was chained together with another slave trying to
escape. 55
40 Africans and Native Americans
In 15 62 one Maria de Vilhena liberated by her testament 'two Indians, a
white, a brown, a black, a mula to, two Moors - a man and a woman, a "chino
Azamel" and two other captives where the race was apparently unknown.' 56
About the year 1550 the king of Portugal declared that, in order to avoid
disputes as to who could get water from the river at certain places, for the
purpose of selling water in Lisbon,
que a primeira bica indo da Ribeira, f6sse destinada exclusivamente aos homens pretos
f6rros e cativos, como a mulatos, indios e mais cativos que f6ssem homens; na segunda
poderiam encher os mouros das gales ... ; na quinta encheriam as pretas, mulatas,
indias, f6rras e cativas. 57
Thus, sections along the river were set aside for various groups, Americans
being included in the group with black and mulatto males, or black and mulatto
females, slave and free, rather than with Muslims. We can, then, picture the
interaction of these various kinds of persons, trying to earn money by peddling
water through the streets of Lisbon.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century there existed in the church of Sao
Tome in Lisbon a confraria (confraternity) limited to 'Indians'. In a letter of
1591 the king responded to a petition from the judge, overseers, and members
of the group by granting for three years the right to ask for alms along the river,
in the Alfama and the Barrio dos Escolares, provided that the right was limited
to those who were very old or ill and could not support themselves. Some
Americans, especially after intermarriage with Africans, probably also belonged
to the confraternity of 'Rosario para pretos', a confraria founded by 1496 to
provide mutual assistance and communal life for pretos (blacks). This group
petitioned in the interests of the community as, for example, in efforts to keep
officials seeking runaway slaves from breaking into the homes of negras and
pretas who were honest women, married to linguas (interpreters) and mareantes
(seamen) (1521, 1529, 1646). 58
Many American slaves were resold from Portugal to other countries, and this
trade continued for at least a century. In 1592, for example, a widower of
Lisbon sold Beatriz, aged 12, originally from Pernambuco, Brazil, to the
Canary Islands. 59
Many Americans were sold as slaves in Spain, as revealed by the notarial
records of Seville and Valencia. It is not possible to be certain as to the numbers
involved since not all of the slaves seem to have been properly registered, and
also baptismal records are relatively scant. Moreover, many slaves are classified
only as to their color (and for some even that is lacking). The color terms used,
such as !oro (intermediate), negro (black or very dark), blanco (light), !oro casi
negro (brown, almost black), and so on are not diagnostic as to 'race' because
they refer to color as perceived by the authorities and not to ancestry. It is
especially helpful when the place of birth is given but otherwise it is not possible
to tell whether a given !oro (for example) is from the Americas, from the Canary
Islands, from northern Africa, from India, or from Spain itself. The major
exception is when an Arab or Islamic proper name accompanies the color
designation.
I
The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 41
I About 102 loros were registered in Seville between 1472 and 1513. Of these,
some 30 can be identified further as follows: 17 were born in Spain, of whom at
I least one was of Islamic background, six were from North Africa, three were
from the Americas (two identified as India (female) and Indias (the Indies), and
I one as from Marafi6n), one was from 'Meni' in Guinea, one was from Portugal,
one from the Azores, and one was the daughter of a negra. Thus 72 remain from
I unknown backgrounds and ten per cent of those identified were frotn the
An1ericas. 60
I It is significant that during this same period of time Americans in the
Caribbean were being referred to as loros, as for example, when Fernandez de
I Oviedo states that 'la gente desta isla es lora' referring to Borinquen (Puerto
Rico). 61
I In one case (above) a female slave from Guinea in 1504 was classified as de
color lora, possibly a result of Portuguese-African mixture (but perhaps she was
from a lighter-skinned group). Later, in 1524, another slave from Guinea was
categorized as negro como loro. 62 Persons from Calicut (India) were also
registered as slaves in 1508 and 1513 but no color designations were given. 63
The term negro is, of course, very commonly used for Seville slaves. Often the
individuals so categorized can be linked with a particular region or kingdom in
Africa. Others, however, are not so identified and could be, in some cases,
Americans of darker color. Sometimes non-Christian personal names suggest
such an origin, as with 'Pitijuan', a negro sold in 1500.
Those Americans recorded as specifically being from the Americas are as
follows:
1500 Pastor, age 13-14, 1naran6n
1501 Francisca, 11-12, India
Alfonso Perez, 25, Antilla (enferrno)
Zumbay, India (enferma)
Pedro, 12, Indio
Francisca, India ('vendida en su mitad')
Cosme, 12, Indio
1503 Gonzalo, 10, Indio
Leonor, 25, Ia Espanola [Haiti]
1504 Rodrigo, 13, Indio ifallecio)
1508 Beatriz, 25, Luque [Lucayo?]
Francisco, 18, La Espanola
1509 Constanza, 20, La Espaiiola
Juan, 20, Indio [with 3 negros, liberated by a Florentine merchant]
1511 Gonzalo, 18, Indias, Loro
1512 Maria, 8, India Lora.
In addition, four other Americans were registered in 1500, 1503, and 1506.
Between 1513 and 1525 another twenty-one Americans were registered in
Seville, of whom ten were males and eleven were females. From 1500 through
1512 males numbered eleven and females numbered eight or nine. The sex
:l

42 Africans and Native Americans

ratio was much more balanced for Americans than was true for black Africans.
The greatest numbers appeared in 1501 (six) and 1525 (six also). In the latter
year two females with two children a los pechos passed before the officials of the
Casa de Contratacion without interference. After 1534 the numbers may have
increased still further as Charles V lifted the prohibitions on American
enslavement.
In actual fact, there were many slaves from the Americas in Seville who never
appeared in the notarized registers. Franco Silva has stated that there were
about 40 Americans in Seville in 1500-1 but that there could have been
more. 64 Other evidence for their presence includes the following: 1500: two
appear in the padron (census) of San Vicente; 1502: two females baptized in
Santa Ana de Triana church; 1503: another female baptized; 1511: a male
named Baltasar hijo de India was baptized in El Salvador church and in the same
year the only !oro was baptized at Santa Ana (slaves constitued ten to fifteen per
cent of the total baptisms in Seville to 1525 but race is often not mentioned);
1516: Catalina, age 25, india from Brazil mentioned; 1517: Anton, indio sold for
10,000 miravedis; 1518: a Portuguese sold an india from Brazil, Juana; and
1525, Juan, an Indian from Espanola, fled. He had been captured in the first
war of Higuey province, when he was a boy. He had a finger cut off from the
right hand, and had a 'sign of iron' (that is, he had been branded). Most
American slaves were from Haiti, Borinquen, and Brazil.
Between the 1490s and 1525 some 1,153 slaves were freed in Seville, of
whom 319 were negros, 234 Muslims of all colors, 11 American males (no
females), 16 canario males and 11 women, 44 male loros and 45 female loros.
The balanced sex ratio of the Americans registered would suggest that some of
. the loros must have also been from the Americas.
Other American baptisms, after 1525, include: 1530: a male and a female
baptized at San Vicente and Diego, indio, baptized at San Ildefonso; 1533: una
india baptized at San Ildefonso; 1534: another male baptized in el Sagrario and
also one at San Vicente; 1539: a female baptized in el Sagrario; and 1540: a
female baptized in el Sagrario.
In 1533 una esclava india, age 20, accompanied by a girl was given as part of
a marriage dowry. In 1542 Isidro, age 25 years, wounded in both carrillos of the
face, was freed along with Pedro, indio. Both were mejicanos, natives of New
Spain. 65
In 1549 Benjamin, un esc/avo indio, was in jail after having fled from his
,I
owner, a tintorero (dyer) of Seville, Juan Nunez. In the middle of the next
!1
l century (c.1650) three esclavas indias were donated by a rich Spaniard from the
I ~ Americas to a nun of the monastery of La Encarnacion de Mula. Interestingly
also, in the annals of Seville for 1607 occurs the following: 'Empez6 a verse el
tabaco; tomabanlo en humo algunos negros bozales.' That is to say that some
new slaves (called negros but certainly Americans) introduced the smoking of
tobacco to Sevillanos. 66
By 1565 there were more than 6,000 slaves in Seville, including Muslims
from Granada, Turks, Berbers, black Africans, Americans, and so on.
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 43
Reportedly, the inhabitants of the city were not really white or black, while
another source states that there were as many prietos (dark people) as whites. 67
These were joined by other slaves later, including 2,000 Turks, Greeks, and
Slavs sold in Cadiz as a result of a victory of the Austrians over the Turks in the
late seventeenth century. 68
There are a few references to persons in the interior parts of Spain who may
well have been of American ancestry. For example, a suspected fugitive was
apprehended in the Valencia area in 1579. He claimed to be free although his
mother was a 'negra, de les indies de Portugal' while his father was white and
was from Algofrin near Toledo. The suspect was called a negre and was age 23.
Because his mother was probably from Brazil he doubtless was half-
American.69 In 1599 a traveler coming from Portugal noted that in Ayamonte
and also in Gibrale6n:
Hay aqui muchos esclavos y principalmente hembras negras y morenas, que vienen de
las lndias y Isla de Santo Thomas, muy hermosas y amorosas, de manera que los vecinos
de esta villa se casan muchas veces con ellas. 70
In that area, then, there were many black and darkish brown women from the
Americas and from Sao Tome Island who were so beautiful and amorous that
the local males often married them.
Valencia, as a major port on the Mediterranean, was an important center for
the trans-shipment of slaves to Italy and to other parts of Spain. The situation
was quite similar to that of Seville in that there were many loros (called tors or
llors), large numbers of Muslim slaves (loros, negros and blancos), even larger
numbers of black Africans, and quite a few Canary Islanders, Asian Indians and
Americans.
Some differences show up, in that many more Americans, canarios, and
Muslims are classified as loros, while some Americans, many Muslims and
almost all Asian Indians are classified as negros. A high percentage of loros seem
to be of Muslim extraction· (from North Africa) or are said to have been born in
Spain. Nonetheless, there are a number of loros who are not identifiable by
place of origin.
The Asian Indians are usually not called Indians but are identified as negros
from Calicut, Bombay or 'Malacca, India'. One or two are identified as of !oro
color or lor casi negro. South Asia is usually called Ia India or, as in the case of
Gonzalo in 1515, de Chochiti, India. As we shall see, however, there is a
possibility that Indias was sometimes used for southeast Asia or Indonesia (even
as some writers used India for Brazil or America). 71
Although the large majority of unidentified negros probably came from Africa,
many could also have been from Asia or America. Here are some examples of
shipments with no place of origin given: 1510: 228 very unassimilated, from
Lisbon; 1510: 227 from Portugal, also bozales; 1511: 112 from Portugal, very
unassimilated; 1511: 88 from Portugal; 1512: 101 from Portugal; 1514: 95
from Portugal; 1514: 27 from Portugal, six of whom were sick; 1516: 130
negros, of whom 15 died; and 1516: 66 negros, of whom three died. These
 44 Africans and Native Americans
figures leave room for wide speculation since also in 1516, of a load of 88 negros,
85 were from Brazil (and were Americans). Similarly, in 1516 a lor, Pedro frotn
Calicut, was registered who had been part of a group of 50 Indians captured by
the Portuguese and brought to Lisbon in 1514. 72
The following is a list of known Americans arriving in Valencia to be
registered, through 1516:
May 27, 1495: two merchants presented 'una cautiva "des les illes noves"' [the new
isles], age 7, de 'les Indies e illes novament trobades'; [from the Indies and islands newly
discovered]. 'She did not confess because no one could understand her.'
June 6, 1509: Martin, 10 years, of Brazil terra de negres [land of negros], along with a
group of Berbers.
September 6, 1509: a Venetian merchant presented a lora, 15, who was native 'de les
Indies de la terra ahon porten lo Brasil, lo nom de la qual n'os sab com no sapia parlar.'
[Name unknown because no translator.]
August 17, 1514: Axa, now Beatriz, 16, de lndias; Sana, now Felipa, 13, same place,
alli por un moro que lo veridio a cristianos qe lo llevaron a Portugal.' [From the Indies,
seized there by a Muslim who sold him to Christians who carried him to Portugal.] [May
refer to the East Indies.]
August 17, 1514: Axa, now Beatriz, 16, de lndias;' Sana, now Felipa, 13, same place,
to Valencia from Portugal. [Axa is a name common to Muslim women, probably
pronounced 'Asha', but could be from many lands.]
January 9, 1515: 'presenta seis negros [including] dos loros oscuras': Joha, lora, now
Isabel, 16, de Brasil, Camane, now Catalina, I 0, from same place. [Thus the dark loras
from Brazil were also categorized as negros.]
February 6, 1515: two negros: Allo, now Jorge, 15, de Hireo; Arago, now Alvaro, same
place. [These were the only slaves in Valencia from Hireo, which was probably lere or
Trinidad.]
1516: four blancos indianos presented: Olmiren, now Antonio, 14, de Paranonpol; Boy,
now Isabel, 16, same place; Yaya, 14, same; Parahimpo, 15, same. They were purchased
in Portugal. [Paranonpol was probably Pernambuco, Brazil.]
December 9, 1516: 88 slaves presented, 85 from the 'island' of Brazil, formerly
pagans but now Christians, and three negros. A Spaniard testified that of these he had
''.j
seen '23 negros' die and taken them to be buried. [Thus the Brazilians were called
negros.]
December 12, 1516: una blanca, Francisca, 14, of the island of Brazil, brought from
Lisbon. 73

Thus the Americans were variously categorized as whites, loros or negros,

depending upon their perceived color.
I have not seen any detailed data for Valencia between 1517 and 1569;
however, statistical sun1maries relating to new and runaway slaves are available
from 1569 to 1686. During this period new color terms appear, largely
replacing !oro and representing various shades of brown. Some 2,999 slaves and
captives were categorized as follows:
negros 1,401
blancos 363
membrillo cocido 365 [stewed quince color]
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 45
morenos 53
mulatos 22
claros 1
llors 3
oscuros 2
no classification 789

Total 2,999
Thus 'blacks' made up less than half of the total, but some of the other shades
of brown could have referred to interior West Africans (such as Pulos) thought
to have a brownish color.
Of the above, 435 were runaways (421 males and 14 females) while 2,564
were new slaves (1,253 males, 836 females and 475 not stated). Most were
quite young (usually age 15 to 25).
The numbers coming from the Indias (Indies) of Portugal were as follows:
1569- 1571- 1579- 1594- 1609- 1607- 1666-
1570 1578 1585 1603 1666 1620 1686
new new new new or new or new or new or total
fugitive fugitive fugitive fugitive
7 4 7 0 1 3 0 22
In the same period, 12 came from Cabo Verde, 23 from Sao Tome and 23 from
Angola, thus illustrating that Brazil (probably) was contributing about as many
slaves as were each of the Portuguese islands and Angola. On the other hand,
84 came from 'other countries,' 576 from Guinea, 481 from Granada, 81 from
Turkey, and so on. 'Las Indias de Portugal' doubtless refers to Brazil rather
than to India.
Insofar as color terms are concerned, the Brazilians were apparently
categorized variously as membrillo cocido, moreno, llors, mulato, or perhaps
occasionally as negro or blanco. 74
One of the problems in tracing the history of Americans in Spain is that with
so many slaves (1 00,000 to 300,000 in all) of so many shades of color, the
Spaniards tended to record those characteristics lending to individual
identification (that is, appearance) and not ancestry. Likewise, the term negro
was probably used broadly for many types of slaves. In 1560, for example, the
moriscos (Christianized moros) were forbidden to purchase 'esclavos negros, ni
los tengan, ni de Berberia'. It would make no sense to forbid moriscos from
having Berber or black slaves, if they could purchase American, mixed, or
brownish slaves. 75
As mentioned previously, the officials of Seville were commissioned in 1549
to liberate Americans in Spain. A few months later it was ordered that
Americans who asked for their liberty would be heard and that justice would be
done. In 1555 two additional officials of the Casa de Contrataci6n of Seville
were assigned to aid in the above process. 76 Nonetheless, it is clear that some
I j

46 Africans and Native Americans

remained in slavery (and doubtless all part-Americans whose mothers were of
African or other non-American ancestry and whose status was that of a slave
were not affected by any of the emancipation provisions whatsoever. The
greater proportion of the children of Americans would have fallen in this
category, in all probability.)
The American and African slaves in Spain (as in Portugal) merged into the
general population. Doubtless many contributed to the growth of the Gitano
('Gypsy') group in cities such as Valencia and Seville. A Spanish historian has
noted that after the 1490s, the Gitanos grew in numbers:
This was partly because the genuine thoroughbred Gypsy was being joined by others
from the oppressed classes of society - fugitive slaves, Moris cos, even Christians wanted
by the law, criminals, adventurers and vagabonds. 77
On several occasions, as in 163 7, the Crown ordered all slaves and gitanos,
including 'negros, mulatos y berberiscos' to forcibly serve in the military galleys
regardless of their owners' wishes. This should act as an indication that
although the slaves were assimilated fairly rapidly into Spanish society, the
assimilation was not always easy or just. As early as 1496 some 50 Americans
were sold to serve in the galleys of Spain, provided that they were not later
found to be legally free (and by that time many would doubtless be dead). 78
Thus we can be sure that both Americans and Africans who entered as slaves
tended to be absorbed into the proletarian level of society. Their cultural impact
upon Spain (and Portugal) needs to be explored more thoroughly in a separate
study.
Many Americans were also sent to the Spanish and Portuguese islands off
the African coast. Data is available for part of the Canary Islands during the
sixteenth century which shows that Americans were present throughout the
period. At Tenerife, to 1525, about ten per cent of the slaves sold were native
canarios. In 1506 una india was sold in the Tenerife slave market by a Genoan.
At Las Palmas, no native canarios were sold after 1510. There were about 1,956
slaves registered for the market, of whom negros constituted 1,371 (70 per cent).
Moriscos constituted 12 per cent and the balance tended to be Muslims from
North Africa. The sex ratio of the negros was heavily male (60 per cent), but the
moriscos were more evenly balanced.
Many loros and mulatos were sold at Las Palmas, with the category !oro being
gradually replaced by mulato. Nonetheless, /oro is used as late as 1599. Some of
the loros and mulatos could have been Americans. In 15 80, for example,
Melchor, age 30, was referred to as mulato-indio. 79
The Americans sold in the Las Palmas market after 1510 and who can be
identified are as follows:
1537 Gaspar, 25, indio blanco
1546 Luis, 26, from india de Portugal
Anton, 6, Brazil, bozal
Catalina, 15, Brazil
1555 Francisco, 20, Indio
'I
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 47
1557 Antonio, 25, from India de Portugal
1558 Bastian, 40, India
1559 Leonor, 20, Indio
Gabriel, 28, Indio
1567 Pablo, -,Indio
157 5 Pedro, -, Indio
1576 Roque, 48, Indio
1579 Pablos, 30, Indio
1580 Melchor, 30, mulato-indio
1582 Luis, 22, Indio
1592 Beatriz, 12, Pernambuco [from Lisbon]
1600 Anton, 30, Indio
As one can see, the vast majority of Americans were males (14 of 17) suggesting
that some females were called loras, mulatas or morenas, or had no color
mentioned.
The compiler of the above data believes that the number of Americans
probably exceeded the number actually registered (as was the case with slaves in
general). Other Americans were mentioned in various sources, such as in
baptismal records or in lawsuits. Also in 15 63 an American was accused of a
robbery for which he was condemned to eight years in the galleys, while another
indio (Agustin Ingles) was condemned for a sexual perversion. The records of
the Inquisition also mention a caribeiio. The baptismal records of el Sagrario
mention a cacique (chief) from Mexico and 'el indio Luis, natural de la India de
Portugal' who had been in Seville before reaching Las Palmas. 80
From the above evidence it is clear that the enslavement of Americans and
their shipment to Europe and Africa was not a short-term experience. We
cannot be certain of the numbers involved (because so many slaves were not
identified ethnically in the records) but we can be sure that their presence was
not limited to the areas cited. Doubtless Americans were resold to many
countries just as African slaves were resold. Italy was perhaps a major market
but the Spanish-controlled Netherlands were probably also a place of trans-
shipment (along with, of course, the various Portuguese islands off Africa).

DUTCH EXPANSION AND THE AMERICAN DIASPORA

There were early connections between the Flemish-Dutch region and both the
Azores and Canaries. In 1495 a ship from 'Flanders' brought Ubay Chimayo, a
canario slave, from Tenerife to Valencia. Similarly, in 1502 some naves
alemanas, Germanic vessels, delivered a mora lora captive from Valencia to
Oran, North Africa, after ransom had been paid. 81 Thus we can suggest that
in the 1490s and early 1500s slaves from the Canary Islands, Africa and the
Americas probably began to appear in the low countries and other northern
areas, carried there by Dutch and Germanic vessels (as well as by Venetian,
Genoese, Portuguese and other ships which frequented northern waters).
 48 Africans and Native Americans
After the Portuguese occupation of coastal Brazil, a close connection
developed between the San Vicente (Santos) area and Antwerp. Peter Rosel,
the factor of an Antwerp banking and commercial house, was in charge of a
sugar refinery (using American slaves) close to San Vicente in the 1550s. In
1554 he was also operating a ship along the Brazilian coast. 82
Antwerp was known as a city with many slaves, including blacks, Muslims,
and Jews. We know that Americans were among them since, in the early 1500s,
one Baltasar the Moor (who was freed) was said to have been 'born in the Indies
of Portugal of Christian parents'. We know that he was from Brazil because he
alleged that the 'whole land' from which he came was inhabited by Christians,
which could only be applicable to the areas where the Jesuits had been
Christianizing Americans since 1549. Earlier, in 1516, two non-Christian
mooren (non-whites) who belonged to one George de Sulco Lobo from Portugal
fled from slavery.
It is evident that there were many Portuguese merchants in Antwerp.
Albrecht Durer, in his journey to the low countries, met a Portuguese factor
with a female (Moorin) slave whom he painted. In 1532 a slave fled from the
house of the Portuguese factor, and in 1540 a Portuguese merchant sold to a
Genoan a zwarten (black) slave named Duarte. 83 The close Portugal-Antwerp-
Brazil connections virtually guarantee that many Brazilian slaves, along with
many Africans, arrived there in the 1500s.
In the latter part of the period the Dutch living to the north of Antwerp began
to wage a successful struggle against their Spanish rulers. Part of their strategy
was to send out ships which raided Spanish and (later) Portuguese shipping and
colonies in the Americas. As early as 15 80 some Dutchmen established Nieuw
Zeeland in Guyana and thereafter they frequented the coasts of South America.
As early as 1601 and 1609 they made contact with Brazilian natives and it is
possible that some were conducted to the Netherlands even as some were taken
there from the Bahia da Trai<;ao.
Nao se sabe com seguran<;a o numero de indios entao embarcados, mas e de presumir
que alguns sejam os interrogados por Kilean de Renselaer em 1628 a aos quais Hessel
Gerritsz se refere pelos nomes- Gaspar Paraupaba, entao de 50 afios, Andre Francisco,
de 32 anos, ambos de Ceara, Pieter Poty, Antonio Guiravassauay, Antonio Luis Gaspar,
todos da Baia de Trai<;ao.
Thus, the Dutch took the above-named Brazilians, among others, to the
Netherlands where they were interviewed and provided important data to those
who planned the attempted capture of Brazil from the Portuguese.
i; Jan de Laet, the Antwerp man who played a major role in the above, referred
to the Brazilians whom 'he saw many times in Holland':
nous avons veu souvent [os indios] en les Provincies Unies, apris en nostre langue,
s<;avoir escrire e entre instruicts aux principes de la Religion Chrestienne; nous avons
re<;ue en quelque fa<;on d'eux Ia cognoissance de ces regions.
1,,
The Brazilians in the Netherlands had learned the Dutch language, been
li
taught to write, and been instructed in the Christian religion. In turn, they
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 49
informed the Dutch about the Brazilian region. As will be noted, Pieter Poty
especially became a major leader against the Portuguese.
While in the Netherlands: 'eles andavam nos meios universitarios e no
mundo dos neg6cios - locais da activadade de Laet'. The Americans went
about in the world of the university and that of business, areas where de Laet
was active. 84
Dutch expansion in the early seventeenth century also served to accelerate
American-African contacts elsewhere. From the 1590s onward Dutch warships
frequently captured Spanish and Portuguese vessels, many of which were
loaded with slaves or possessed crew members of non-white race. Some of
these slaves were taken to Europe while others were sold to the English in
Virginia or were sent to Dutch ports in the Americas (New Amsterdam and
Curac;ao, for example). We know that some of the captives were persons with
Spanish (Christian) names and were not new slaves from Africa. In fact, some
of those who arrived in Virginia were Carib people. 85 The Dutch also sent
Esopus captives from the Hudson River area to the Netherlands, Bermuda and
C urac;ao in 1644. In 1660 some 15 or 20 Esopus (Lenape) captives were sent to
Curac;ao and Bonaire by Governor Peter Stuyvesant, to work for the West
Indias Company. Before 1664 slaves arriving in the Netherlands 'from the
Indies' were set free. 86
Along the South American coast the Dutch attempted to establish posts at
various places, such as at the mouth of the Essequibo River where one Jan de
Moor [John the Black] was in 1616. In 1624-5 an effort was made to capture
Bahia but, as with certain of the posts to the north, this was a failure. In general,
a long-term struggle ensued in which the various American nations were pawns
in a power struggle between the Portuguese and other Europeans. 87 The Dutch
were able to capture Recife- Pernambuco and thereafter gradually dominated a
significant part of Brazil and Maranhao (the lower Amazon region).
As soon as they seized Pernambuco the Dutch began to make use of some of
the Brazilians educated in Holland. In 1631 three were sent to Brazil to be
employed as interpreters and go-betweens, while others returned later. At the
same time many Americans remained in Holland and in 1635 it was reported
that they were speaking Dutch as their 'own' language in place of their native
tongues. The Brazilians were numerous enough in Amsterdam in 1636 to have
their own 'synagogue' (probably a reformed church), according to an Irish
visitor who had been in Brazil previously. The Americans gave him messages to
take back to their relatives in Brazil. 88
During the period from 1631 to 1654 many Brazilian natives, both Tupi-
speaking (called Brazilians) and Tapuya (called Tapoeijers and Daboyers) were
sent to the Netherlands, for education, to provide entertainment, and for
diplomatic alliance purposes. A Brazilian mamaluco (mixed-blood) also went to
Leiden, where he is known to have married and had children. Moreover, many
Dutch in Brazil married Portuguese-speaking and native women, producing a
new type of mamaluco (often blonde-haired). Many of these mixed families
stayed in Brazil but others, after 1654, fled to the French West Indies, Curac;ao,
 50 Africans and Native Americans
and Holland. Black Africans were also taken to Holland during the period. 89
The Americans were absolutely essential to Dutch plans in Brazil. Some
4,000 Tupi-speaking Brazilians lived under Dutch supervision in separate
communities and furnished essential labor and military service. Thousands of
Tapuya served as allies against the Portuguese. On the other hand, the
Portuguese also had Americans on their side and both European groups
utilized black, mulato, and mamaluco troops against each other. In 1538, for
example, the Dutch governor had 3,600 European and 1,000 American troops
at his disposal. One Antonio Mendes commanded a company of 'tupis, mulatos
e negros' for the Dutch.
In addition to 'free' Americans living in communities, there were also many
slaves of native origin as well as those of mixed African and American ancestry.
The Dutch allowed some Americans to remain in slavery; others (newly
captured by Dutch allies) were to serve for seven years. In the Maranhao region
and Ceara, however, the enslavement of Americans continued as it had under
the Portuguese until the policy began to create problems with the Tapuya allies.
Theoretically, in 1642-3, the Americans of the Maranhao were to be
considered free, 'as are the Brazilians'. Nonetheless, some Brazilian Americans
were sold by the Dutch in the West Indies (to the colony of St Christopher)
.
I
j
)
prior to 1654. 90
After 1630 the Dutch West Indias Company became fully involved in the
slave trade from West Africa, made necessary in part because large numbers of
African and American slaves in Brazil fled to the interior during the years of
Dutch-Portuguese fighting. The slavery business prompted the Dutch to attack
Portuguese trading stations in Africa, beginning in 163 7.
Dutch military expeditions to Africa included significant numbers of
Brazilian (Tupi and Tapuya) auxiliary soldiers. The expedition which
conquered the Portuguese forts along the Gold Coast (1637 -8) included many
Tapuyas, while the expedition which conquered the Angola forts, Sao Tome
and Ano Born included 240 Americans of the Tupi group (1641). In 1642 they
also conquered Axim in Guinea. Some 300 Brazilian natives were used on Sao
Tome, of whom only 60 were later alive.
Given the Dutch use of Brazilian natives as allies and auxiliaries in Brazil
itself and in West Africa, it seems also plausible to suggest that Americans were
used in connection with Dutch activities elsewhere. In 1641 and 1642
complaints were being made that Tupi numbers were diminishing because they
were being taken to fight in foreign lands. 91
The influence of the Tapuya auxiliaries taken by the Dutch to West Africa
needs especially to be traced, since there is evidence of long-standing Tapuya
influence in Elmina (Ghana). Albert van Dantzig, a Dutch scholar working in
Ghana, has written to me that 'down to the 19th century (when the Dutch sold
Elmina Castle to the British) the Dutch continued to refer to mulattoes as
Tapoeijers.' William Bosman, a Dutch slave-merchant who fathered a mixed-
blood son on the Gold Coast of Africa (where he resided from 1687 to 1701)
had some nasty remarks to make about the Tapoeijers of mulatten (Tapuyas or
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 51
mulattoes). He notes that the Tapoeijers were serving as soldiers for the Dutch
but otherwise they and their women are described as bad characters, idolators
(although nominal Christians), prostitutes, and 'knaves'. He states also that they
were born from the mixture of a European with a neger woman, a statement
which betrays his lack of knowledge of their actual history but which also
reveals that they had become Africanized (or that by neger he meant any non-
white). Doubtless the Tapuya men of the 1640s had married African or
African-Portuguese-Brazilian mixed women already living on the Gold Coast.
It should be noted, however, that an earlier Dutch writer refers to the Daboyer
as Moren (blacks, non-whites) even in Brazil. 92
That Tapuyas remained on the Gold Coast is not surprising since after 1654
they would have probably been killed by their Portuguese enemies if they had
returned to Brazil. 93
It should also be noted that the Dutch, like the Portuguese, sent civilians
from Brazil to Africa. In 1644 mulatos e negros who were stonemasons were
taken from Pernambuco to Luanda, Angola, to help build a fort. The mulatos
were doubtless part-American.
In this connection, it is interesting to note that J. A. Rogers refers to the
tradition of American ancestry in West Africa at a much later date:
Today the West African mulatto has castes of his own. The oldest group are the
Portuguese-Brazilians .... They live chiefly in the larger towns as Porto Novo, Cotonou,
Whydah, Grand Popo .... Some even have an American- Indian strain brought by their
earliest mulatto ancestors from Brazil. These Portuguese-Brazilians are the aristocrats
of the mulatto group. 94

After being expelled from Brazil in 1654, the Dutch (or many of them) and
the Portuguese Jews who had joined them, retreated with slaves, servants and a
plantation ideology to other places. For example, 900 such persons, free and
slave, left Brazil and migrated to Guadaloupe and Martinique. In addition, the
Dutch had been actively selling slaves in the French islands, as noted. We know
that many of the slaves on the islands were 'Brazilians' (Americans from Brazil)
and Aroiiaques (Arawaks, perhaps from the Guiana coast). In 1656 some 20
Brazilian slaves helped suppress an Angolan rebellion on Guadaloupe. As late
as 1767 the Brazilian term mamaluco was still being used on Martinique. 95
The Dutch, along with the French and English, were active along the Guiana
coast during this same period. The Dutch, in particular, developed for a time a
route from the Essequibo River, via the Rio Negro, to the Amazon, bringing
back canoe-loads of slaves to the coast. They made peace with the Lokono
(Arawak) people of Surinam and, by the late 1680s, with the adjacent Carib
groups. The friendly tribes, especially the Caribs, continued to supply the
Dutch with American slaves from the interior until the mid-nineteenth century.
The island of Curac;ao was also used by the Dutch as a center for the resale
of slaves and it would appear that Americans were still being obtained along the
'wild coast' of South America well into the ninteenth century. The ultimate
disposition of the American slaves from the Surinam-Orinoco-Amazon
 52 Africans and Native A 1nericans
watersheds and the Cura<;ao region is not known to me. Some Surinam area
natives were sent to Barbados from 1627 to help develop the sugar industry
there. Perhaps others were sold (with black Africans) to all available markets or
were taken to Dutch colonies in Africa and elsewhere. 96
Regulations issued in the Netherlands in 1764 for the Dutch slave trade at
Cura<;ao mention two kinds of slaves: neger slaves and macquerons slaves. These
macquerons slaves were obviously not African and they were of less monetary value
than neger slaves. The term makarons can be interpreted as meaning 'mixed' (as
applied to language), as being of light brown color or as referring to long hair
hanging down in front of the ears (a 'macaroni' hairstyle, as it was called). My
suspicion is that these were, in fact, American or part-American slaves since
African-white slaves would not have had a price differential in all probability. It
should also be noted that an American group in the Maranhao area was known
as the Macamacrans.
In 1774 one Frank, a slave of a 'yellowish or mustee complexion', ran away in
South Carolina. he 'would feign dress, the wool of his head in the macaroni
taste, the which being that of a mustee, he has teazed into side locks, and a
queue, but when too lazy to comb, ties his head with a handkerchief.' Thus we
have evidence that a 'mustee' (of American and African mixture) of the period
wore his hair in a 'macaroni' style. American-African mixed -bloods often were
described as having 'bushy' hair, longer and 'wilder' than West Africans. 97
In modern times, the term macaron has come to refer to a person lacking in
some type of physical capability. It has been interpreted as referring also to
slaves whom the Spaniards would not purchase from the Dutch and who had to
be sold in North America, that is, slaves who were old or unable to work hard.
A more first-hand source refers, however, to the sweetness of a hallff-blanks
makronsje, that is, to a young half-white macaron, thus invalidating the above
thesis. American slaves, in general, were difficult to sell to the Spaniards
because their enslavement was technically illegal. Moreover, they were usually
used for the less arduous tasks such as hunting, fishing, boating or craft work. 9 s
Americans continued to be transported to the Netherlands long after the loss
of Brazil. In the 1770s, for example, an American boy named Weekee from the
Berbice River (Surinam-Guyana) was living in Bergen-op-Zoom where he
learned to be a cook and 'something of a tailor'. He later returned home and 'no
sooner touched American ground, than stripping himself of his lumber
[clothes], he launched naked into his native woods. ' 99

AMERICANS IN FRANCE AND THE FRENCH COLONIES

The French also are responsible for taking many Americans to Europe, but the
earliest of such visits probably are lost in the mystery of early Breton and
Basque voyages to Newfoundland and Greenland. In general, the French were
active initially in two regions, in the North Atlantic and along the coast of Brazil.
In 1503 Captain de Gonneville of Honfleur sailed to Brazil and brought back an
'I
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 53
American who was the son of a chief of the Carij6 nation. This IS-year-old boy
was educated in France, married a Frenchwoman and was still living there in
1583. Thereafter, the French were active rivals of the Portuguese along the
coast of Brazil, making friends with the Americans who were enemies of the
Portuguese, in particular, with the Carij6s of the south, the Tam6ios of Rio de
Janeiro, and the various groups north of Pernambuco. French individuals
intermarried with the Americans, leaving in Brazil many mamalucos of French
ancestry, especially among the Tupinamba (many of whom \Vere blondish and
white-looking).
Numerous Brazilians journeyed to France after 1509, including Paraguazu,
the wife of the famous Portuguese founder of the Bahia, Caramuru or Diego
Alvares. Paraguazu and Caramuru were legally married in France in 1510 with
the king and queen as sponsors. Later they returned to Bahia.
Many other Brazilians lived in Rouen, France. In 1550 a large number put
on a spectacle there for Henry II and Catherine de Medici, while Montaigne
interviewed three Americans in Rouen in 15 63. The Portuguese Jesuits were
extremely concerned that Protestant heretics were taking Brazilians to Europe
for training in heresy. In 1561 it was reported that 'many young people are
being sent to Calvin and to other places for training in their errors.'
As early as the 1590s Americans from the Maranhao were taken to France
and in 1612 some six Tupinambas from that area made the same journey,
stopping also in Falmouth, England. Three lived to be baptized in Paris with
the king and queen as sponsors. 100 It is quite clear that the Franco-American
alliance in the Brazil region resulted in large numbers of Brazilians going to
France as free visitors, a situation leading directly to contacts with Newfound-
land and Canadian Americans as well as with Africans also in France.
If Americans reached France as slaves in the sixteenth century they were
probably set free. In 1571, for example, the parliament of Bordeaux set free
'Ethiopian and other slaves' whom a merchant wished to sell in the port, on the
grounds that slavery was not legal in France. 101
The first Americans reaching France across the North Atlantic would seem
to have been brought to Rouen from Terranova (the Newfoundland area) in
15 08 with another group following in 15 09. The first group consisted in seven
men, of suie (soot) color, tattooed from ears to chin. 102
In 1524 Juan Verrazano, sailing for France, visited the North American
coast, kidnapping a young boy. Ten years later, Jacques Carier took back two
youths from Canada and in 1535 he kidnapped nine Americans from the same
area. The chief Donacona and his fellows were baptized at St Malo but are said
to have died within a year or two. In 1541 Carier returned a young Huron girl to
Canada. Later, in the 1680s Iroquois captives were sent to France to serve in
the royal galleys. 103
As the years went by, the French became involved in American slavery in
Canada, the Mississippi Valley, Louisiana and the Caribbean. In North
America itself American slaves, called paducas (1720s) and panis, became quite
common. It is possible that some of these, along with mixed-blood Acadians,
 54 Africans and Native Americans
reached France. In 1747 a panis slave was sent from Canada to Martinique
while in 1732 a Carib slave was taken to Canada. 104
In the French West Indies a plantation economy began to develop and there,
v· as noted, one finds Brazilian and Arawak slaves by the 1650s. In Louisiana the
enslavement of Americans was quite common from the very beginning of the
colony, with the Chitimacha people being a special target but also with slaves
being brought in from the Mississippi Valley. In the early 1700s the French there
are known to have been interested in exchanging American slaves for Africans
from Haiti and other colonies. Some were actually traded for supplies. In the
late 1720s many Natchez people were sent as slaves to Haiti. 105 In the 1750s
the Spanish apprehended three ,Americans on a French vessel. They were
liberated from slavery by the Audiencia de Santo Domingo in 1756 on the
. grounds that all Americans 'who shall not be caribes' were free, whether found
"'{ inside or outside Spanish territories. 106

BRITISH EXPANSION AND THE RELOCATION OF AMERICANS

The English may have met Americans at Newfoundland in the pre-1492 period
but the first record relating to Americans on British soil is somewhat later. In
about 1501-2 a joint Bristol-Portuguese venture seems to have been
responsible for bringing three Americans from Newfoundland to England. A
source states that: 'three men were brought out of an island founde by
merchants of Bristow forre beyond lrelonde, the which were clothed in Beestes
skynnes and ete raw flesh, and rude in their demeanure as Be estes.' These
newcomers were presented to Henry VII. Two of them were still about
Westminster Palace in 1504 when, because of a change of dress, and for other
reasons they 'appeared English'. A biographer of Thomas More feels that More
'had probably seen them' prior to his brother-in-law's expedition to Newfound-
land in 1516 and the publication of Utopia. Several voyages reached that same
area in 1504 and 1505 also, but no further references to Americans appear until
1531 when William Hawkins brought back a Brazilian leader who met Henry
VIII at Whitehall. 107
In 1576-7 Americans (probably Inuits) were kidnapped by Martin Fro-
bisher, one of them being sketched by Lucas de He ere, the Flemish artist. Like
many Inuits kidnapped in subsequent years, the majority seem to have died
away from their home environment. 108
Contacts with the Atlantic seaboard of North America and with the Orinoco-
Guiana region produced a number of visitors in the 15 80s, including the
famous Manteo of North Carolina and several Guiana natives who served Sir
Walter Raleigh in the Tower of London. The English also began to capture
Spanish shipping during this period, in the Caribbean and elsewhere, and we
know that non-whites began to be present in Plymouth and other ports in some
numbers.
Beginning in 1603 the English began to abduct or otherwise convey
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 55
Americans from the New England and Virginia coasts to England. The
Powhatans brought from the Chesapeake Bay area gave a demonstration of
canoe handling on the Thames. Boatsmen 'waited on the Virginians when they
rowed with their canoes'. When John Smith was a prisoner among the
Powhatans in 1607 he was exhibited to see if he had been on board an earlier
ship which had 'taken away some Indians from them by force' .109
In any case, abductions began to play a key role in English plans for
colonization. Interpreters were needed as well as precise geographical
information. In 1605 five Americans were kidnapped from the St George River,
the first (apparently) of a large number seized from the New England area. 'By
1610 taking captured Indians to England had become routine. Would-be-
colonizers such as Sir Fernando Gorges hoped to impress the captives ... , to
learn as much as they could about the lay of the land, and to acquire mediators
with the local Indians.'
Not all of the Americans were treated in such a manner, however. Thomas
Hunt in 1614 kidnapped 27 Americans from Massachusetts and took them to
Malaga, Spain, for sale as slaves. A few were sold as such while the rest were
taken by Spanish 'friars' to be instructed in Christianity. Most of them
doubtless remained in Spain but one Tasquantum (Squanto) was able to get away
to Newfoundland and England and in 1619 returned to Massachusetts, only to
find his region decimated by European-introduced disease. 110
In 1616 Pocahontas and at least ten other Powhatans were taken to England
from Virginia. One of the men, Uttamakomak (Tomocomo) and several girls
remained in Britain for some time, the girls being eventually (1621) sent to the
Bermudas where they married settlers.
Other Americans did not fare as well. Records in England indicate that
Queen Elizabeth in 15 96 and 1601 issued orders to be rid of all of the non-
white foreigners in her realm (Blackmoores and 'negars and blackamoores')
and many were gathered up for resale to other countries. Some Americans or
part-Americans could have been among those sold, since in 1621 there is a
reference to 'thirteen Negroes or Indian people, six women, seven men and
boyes' who were being sold, perhaps to Bermuda. 111
After the Pequot-English War in New England many American prisoners
were enslaved and sold. In 1638 Pequots were sold in the West Indies, many
reaching Providence Island off Central America. Between 16 7 6 and 1683 many
other New England Native Americans were 'condemned to be sold into foreign
slavery' after the so-called 'King Philip's War'.

Thus during the war and for some time afterward, Indians believed to be hostile or
dangerous were shipped away to the slave markets of the West Indies, Spain, and the
Mediterranean coasts. . . . Both Jamaica and Barbados legislated against their
admittance. John Eliot knew of a case in which a vessel filled with Indian prisoners tried
in vain to unload its human cargo at one market after another. She finally managed to get
rid of them at Tangiers in North Africa, where they were still living in 1683. Probably
many a black rhan today in North Africa and the islands of the West Indies carries some
56 Africans and Native Americans
traces of the blood which once surged through the veins of Philip's [Metacomet's]
defeated warriors.

Another source indicates that some Americans were returned to Massachusetts

from Algiers in 1683. In any case, a policy was developed early in New England
of exchanging Americans overseas for Africans. After 1637-8 that policy was
effectively implemented by means of wars which provided captives. 112
Some years after the English took New York from the Dutch one Sarah
Robinson, a Native American of that province, was seized in Southampton and
sent as a slave to the Madeira Islands. She was fortunate, however, and was
later returned to New York. 113
As the English became more involved in the African slave trade they also
became more ruthless in terms of seizing Americans. In 1663 William Hilton
kidnapped several Americans from South Carolina and carried them to
Barbados where two of them, Shadoo and Wommony, were seen in 1666.
From 16 70 onwards the English of South Carolina engaged regularly in the
American slave trade, sending natives in the tens of thousands to the West
Indies and other markets. In 1674 a group was sent to Jamaica. In 1693 a
Cherokee delegation at Charleston requested the return of their relatives who
had been taken to Jamaica, without apparent success. Most of the slaves were
from Florida or the Mississippi area (Choctaws for example) and they were a
major source of income to the English.
American slaves from Virginia; North Carolina, and other areas were also
sold to the West Indies and Bermuda. Virginia laws of 1660, 1711 and 1723
specifically referred to enslavement and transportation to 'a foreign country' or
to the West Indies as a punishment for Americans. 114
Native American slaves show up in many areas as a result of English activity.
In 1688 the London Gazette had an advertisement for 'A black boy, an Indian,
about thirteen years old, run away the 8th inst. from Putney, with a collar about
his neck with this inscription: "The Lady Bromfield's black".' In 1694 the same
paper advertised for 'A Tanny Moor, with short bushy hair' who had run away.
(This could refer to an American-African mixed -blood.) In 1709 The Tatler had
an advertisement for a 'Black Indian Boy, 12 years of age'.
It would appear that both Americans and Africans began to appear in exotic
pageants and entertainments staged in London during the seventeenth century.
It is not always possible to clearly ascertain the ethnicity of the performers, since
Africans were sometimes dressed up as Americans, or perhaps vice versa. In
1629 the librette for a pageant refers to: 'an Indian boy, holding in one hand a
long Tobacco pipe, in the other a dart'. But he is riding an ostrich. A 16 72
pageant showed in 'West India' some 'Tawny Moors' working and playing
music. Also the audience heard a 'Masculine' Tawny woman declare:. 'That I
the better may Attention draw, be pleas'd to know I am America.'
In 1695 a London pageant featured a plantation scene showing 'Negroes,
Tawneys, Virginia-Planters', and so on.
The American presence in Britain was augmented by the activities of the
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 57
Hudson Bay Company after the seventeenth century. An interesting article of
1915 notes that:
Many of the most prominent men and the most respected families in the North of
Scotland edging in from the Orkney Islands are of Indian descent. Most of these persons
are of Cree blood. For many years the Scotch have been active as traders ... and scores
of them have brought back with them their Cree wives. Even the Cree men intermarried
with Scotch lassies and so today up in the north of the British isles, Cree words mingle
with Gaelic and bronzed cheeks are often seen .... the British army and navy even
number their descendants as soldiers, marines and officers. 115

Meanwhile, Newfoundland, Labrador and Greenland continued to be visited

by vessels of many nations and by 15 66 Inuit people could be seen in the The
Hague, ten years prior to Frobisher's kidnappings. The massive growth of the
whaling industry as well as the activities of the Danish government led to many
Inuits along with their kayaks being taken to Europe, principally to Denmark,
the Netherlands, and whaling centers (such as, probably, Hamburg). Between
1605 and 1725 quite a number of Inuit were taken specifically to Denmark,
Holland and Friesland. From these places a number managed to escape in their
kayaks. Doubtless these Inuits were the same who appeared frequently in the
Orkney and Shetland Islands, in the Netherlands and even in Scotland during
the period, paddling kayaks apparently in a desperate effort to return to their
families in Greenland. 116
It is worth noting also the existence of many seamen and whalers of native
origin, especially since many were active in the Caribbean and Atlantic
generally. During the seventeenth century New England Indians were recruited
to serve as sailors on English vessels sailing from Boston and other ports. Many
served on whaling vessels from 16 70 while others were present on vessels
trading with Africa and the Caribbean. Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick
features an American whaling-man. 117 by 1681 Miskito men from Central
America were common on board English vessels also.
They have extraordinary good Eye, and will discern a sail at sea farther, and see any
thing better than we. [They are also good fishermen.] For this they are esteemed and
coveted by all Privateers; for one or two of them in a ship, will n1aintain 100 men ... and
it is very rare to find Privateers destitute of one or more of them, when the commander,
or most of the men are English; but they do not love the French, and the Spaniards they
hate morally. When they come among Privateers, they get the use of Guns, and prove
very good Marks-Men: they behave themselves very bold in fight .... The Moskito 's are
in general very civil and kind to the English, both when they are aboard their ships, and
also ashore, either in Jamaica or elsewhere, whither they often come with the Seamen .
. . . When they are amqng the English they wear good cloaks, and take delight to go neat
and tight.IIH

An ordinance adopted by South Carolina in 1823 and by Georgia in 1829

seems to suggest that sailors visiting that area included many non-whites. Any
such 'colored' seamen were to be imprisoned while in port but that rule was not
58 Africans and Native Americans
to apply to 'free American Indians, free Moors, or Lascars, or other colored I
subjects of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope'. 119
Doubtless as a direct result of American experiences as sailors, Paul Cuffe, I
an American-African mixed-blood, and his Native American in-laws went into
the shipping business in the early 1800s. Most significantly Cuffe acquired his I
own vessel and actually sailed to West Africa (with other Americans from the
Wampanoag Nation). Cuffe was interested in the idea of colonizing free people I
of color in Africa. Subsequently, the colonization of persons of part-African or
African descent occurred in Sierre Leone and Liberia. Some of these persons .I
could, of course, have been part-American in ancestry (since the white racism
of the period did not always distinguish between a Red-Black mixed-blood and
a 'pure' African). 120
I
I
BRAZILIAN-AFRICAN CONTACTS AND THE CONTINUED
r
ENSLAVEMENT OF AMERICANS

The most important source of continuous contact would appear, however, to be

I
between Brazil and West Africa and especially with Angola. As noted earlier,
from the 1630s onward there was continuous contact between Brazil and West r
Africa and Brazil's population included many Americans and part-Americans.
Many 'white' Brazilians were actually half-American and the free non-slave
rl
population (as well as the slaves) included large increments of American
ancestry. We can be sure that the bulk of the crews sent to Africa were drawn I
from the lower and therefore 'brown' levels of Brazilian society. 121
A Brazilian author has stated that: 'Angola was more closely linked to Brazil
than to Portugal, it having been Brazil that freed Angola from Dutch rule'.
I
Moreover, there were many other continuous links with Africa including the
education of free Africans in Bahia and the return of ex-slaves to Africa, 'taking
!
Brazilian customs, traditions, and language to Dahomey and the whole of the
Gulf of Guinea.' 122 From 1807 to 1821 the Portuguese Crown ruled Brazil and
J
after 1825 Brazil was an independent state dominating the Angola slave trade.
Thus during the nineteenth century we can be sure that Brazilian-American
I
contacts with Africa were quite extensive.
During all of this period Americans were held as slaves or were being
I
enslaved in Brazil. This was true in the Amazonian region where Native
American labor was in constant demand for the Pani-Ceani area. One Jesuit
estimated that 'three million Indians were descended (as slaves) from the Rio
Negro alone in the century up to 1750'. While this figure may be exaggerated,
there is no question but that some Portuguese possessed more than 1,000
American slaves each.
As noted, a law of 1755 prohibited the enslavement of persons of American
ancestry, but only in the female line. In any case, ways were found to create a
new class of tapuios, seus servos (Tapuyas, their servants) legally distinct from
pretos escravos (black slaves) but in actuality also slaves. In 1789 a cafuza
I The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500
(American-African mixed-blood), daughter of 'india Ana Maria' was sold and
59

I held as a slave in spite of being of American ancestry in the female line. In 1854
a Para newspaper advertised regarding a slave of cor tapuia (Tapuya color) while
in 1854 an advertisement mentioned a slave who was ntulato atapuiado (a
Tapuya-ish mulato). Large numbers of cafuzo slaves were present during those
years.
During the nineteenth century debates took place in regard to resuming the
full use of American labor as a means for excluding further imports of Africans.
J The bishop of Bahia in 1827 noted that 20,000 Americans in his province were
'suited to all kinds of work and industry'. Another speaker mentioned '200,000
I who can immediately settle Brazil'. In the middle of the nineteenth century a
British visitor to the Guiana-Surinam region noted 'how prevalent the Indian
slave-trade has been, and how recently carried on, even within our boundaries. It
still prevails on the southern borders of our colony and the northern tributaries
I of the Amazon.' He noted further that Macusi of the interior were especially
victimized. 'The Brazilians, as well as the Caribs, Acawoios, etc. have long been
in the habit of enslaving them.' 123
Slavery also continued in other sections of Brazil. In 1741 some 8,000
Kaiapo people of Goias were enslaved. Large numgers of cariJ6s (servants) were
present in the south, sometimes classified as 'administered Indians' but in
practice used in a servile status. 124
· In the Spanish Empire and the independent republics established therefrom,
slavery or semi-slavery also continued from the late seventeenth through the
nineteenth century in spite of laws prohibiting such. Along the northern frontier
of Mexico slavery continued during the 1690s and persisted until the 1860s,
primarily involving Apaches, Navajos, Paiutes, Yavapais, and other border
nations whose resistance made them subject to being captured. Some natives
from this region were shipped to the West Indies while others (such as the
Yaqui in the 1880s) were sold to Yucatan.
After the abortive Tupak Amaru rebellion in Peru in 1781-3, however, the
Inca nobility suspected of disloyalty to Spain were 'executed, imprisoned, or
shipped to exile in Spanish Sahara'. Thus some Americans reached still
another part of Africa. 125
It should also be noted that when the Spaniards first began bringing slaves
and workers from Spain to the West Indies a number of those transported were
ladino (Spanish speaking) or of mixed brown appearance. In 1501, for example,
Andres Garcia de color !oro, formerly a servant and Cristobal de Palacios, de color
!oro and a resident of Trigueros, went to Haiti under four-year contracts.
Cautivos of !oro color were also sent, as in 1521 when Isabel de color !oro was sold
to the Indies.) Slaves of Islamic background were also sent (although prohibited
by law) as in 1523 when Almanzor (esclavo blanco) and Maria and Catalina
(esclavas blancas) were transported. All three were natives of Allende in Berberia
(North Africa). Of course numerous Africans of non- Islamic background were
sent, as in 1501 when Pedro de color negro contracted to serve as a soldier with
Juan de Saravia for two years in Haiti. 120
60 Africans and Native A1nericans
In 1502 a large number of negros were sent from Seville to Haiti as slaves but
the following year the Crown temporarily prohibited the sending of more
because of the difficulties which had been produced by their uniting with rebel
Americans. 127

THE NATURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF AMERICAN-AFRICAN

CONTACTS

Thus in many parts of Europe, along the coasts of Africa, and throughout the
Americas the slave trade and European imperialism in general produced a vast
number of contacts between black Africans and Native Americans. As a result a
great deal of intermixture took place, as in Brazil where one scholar has stated
that:
from the beginning Brazil was more a Negro and Tupf product than a Western,
Portuguese one .... Brazil is therefore a Mestizo Republic, neither European nor Latin
American, the synthesis of Tupf, African, Occidental, and Oriental antitheses, a unique
and original creation. 128

In Europe, the Canary Islands, the Azores, and other places, it would appear
that both Americans and Africans generally became absorbed into the melting
pot of the working classes, disappearing gradually into the general population or
into groups such as the Gitanos of Spain and Portugal. The story of this process
remains still to be written, even as the current intermixture of Native Americans
and part-Americans with Africans, Asians, Afro-Americans, and Europeans in
the modern cities of Europe has yet to be studied.
In Africa itself, the impact of Americans and part-Americans, whether from
Brazil or elsewhere, remains also to be studied. Certain it is that American
crops and specific cultural items or habits (such as the hammock and tobacco
smoking) have had an impact. Rodrigues has noted that to Africa went tobacco,
maize (corn), manioc (cassava), the anana (pineapple), and batata (sweet potato).
Native American words for many of these plants \vere incorporated into African
languages.
Bahian coconut palms were taken to Cape Verde ... and our cashew has sweetened
African palates .... So the commodities on which the African native diet is based, like
corn, sweet potato, and manioc, are Brazilian in origin .... Plants of American and
Brazilian origin also went to the Congo. Corn, manioc, coconut, guava, and peanut, ...
were transplanted from Brazil. ... Rubber was also taken to Angola.

Often Brazilian-American methods of preparation for foodstuffs were directly

incorporated into African cultures, as with the use of manioc-cassava. 129
(Needless to state, African crops were brought in the reverse direction with
great impact in certain regions.)
In the direct Brazil-West Africa trade, enduring from the 1600s (or earlier)
until the latter part of the nineteenth century, there must have been many
opportunities for other American influences upon African cultures, especially
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 61
in the Angola region but also in Ghana and other areas. Writers who have
concentrated solely upon the Black African influence on Brazil and other parts
of the Americas have perhaps overlooked the fact that communication was, of
necessity, in both directions.
This issue is especially important in relation to the assumption fostered by
some scholars that Black Africans did not experience American acculturative
influences until arriving on American soil, but it is also significant in relation to
the assumption that one can (or could) examine West African cultures through
twentieth-century fieldwork and assume that what one finds is (or has been)
largely unaffected by external influences.
Needless to state, one must also acknowledge considerable African impact
upon Native Americans in the Americas. Up to four or five centuries of contact
cannot be without cultural interchange.
In America itself Black Africans and, to a lesser extent, North Africans were
thrown into intensive contact with Americans soon after 1500 in the Caribbean
and shortly thereafter in Brazil, Mexico, Central An1erica, and Peru.
The nature of these contacts varies, of course, according to the region and
the time period. We can be sure that Americans and Africans did not
automatically see each other as friends or as allies against a common Spanish or
Portuguese foe. In essence, each Black African and each American national
probably saw most outsiders as aliens just as the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch,
French, and English saw each other as enemies or rivals.
There is much evidence to show that Americans and Africans often
collaborated against European exploitation, as, for example, in Mexico. On the
other hand, there is also considerable evidence suggesting that in locales such
as Peru, Africans sometimes became exploiters of the native people, modeling
1 themselves on the Spaniards. Needless to state, the imperial powers often
l ·attempted to keep black and red people apart, the better to divide and
) conquer .130
We can also expect that many free mixed-bloods identified with colonialism's
). rewards and did not, a priori, possess any feelings of loyalty towards unmixed
t1 Americans or Africans.
Nonetheless, slavery and general labor oppression soon began to create
conditions favorable for the establishment of especially intimate relations
d
:e
between Africans and Americans. The nature of the European empires
d determined that the overwhelming majority of non-whites were to be severely
exploited and that only a handful, in comparison, could expect to escape from
the lowest rungs of colonial society.
Virtually everywhere, from Brazil to Mexico and Peru, the initial peon or slave
ly populations consisted in Americans. Black Africans only began to be imported
29
in significant numbers after 1510 (Caribbean) and 1550 (Brazil), and the
:h subjugation of Americans also continued during that epoch.
The Europeans sought out labor wherever they could find it and n1any
r) thousands of Americans were absorbed into the slave cauldron during the same
lY period that Africans were being brought in. (It is true, as noted, that efforts
ly
i;

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62 Africans and Native Atnericans
were made by the Spanish Crown and by the Jesuits in Brazil· to prevent
American enslavement, but such efforts were seldom very successful.)
In any case, the initial slave population was American. In the second stage it
became African and American. In the third stage it became increasingly Africanized in
certain regions (such as plantation areas of Brazil, the British and French
Caribbean, the Atlantic seaboard of North America), but other areas saw the
continued enslavement of Americans (such as northern and southern Brazil) or
the replacement of slavery by peonage or low-wage labor using people largely of
American ancestry.
As time went by, the initial African and American nature of the slave
population became obscured by Africanization, on the one hand, or Americani-
zation, on the other. But the fact remains that there are large areas of the
Americas where the modern-day 'Indians' or mestizos are part-African, and
conversely there are few areas where the modern-day Afroamericans are not
part-American.
Of course, this process of African-American mixture also involved the 'free
people of color', the pardos, mestizos, ladinos, and cholos of the Americas. I
discuss the evolution of this population elsewhere but it should be noted that
almost everywhere it originated from free American mothers who produced
free children from fathers of various races (African, European, or American).
Needless to state, white mothers occasionally produced free mixed children but
outside of North America there were very few white women available. Also
European fathers sometimes freed their own mixed children (if from a slave
mother) but, in fact, most mothers must have been American women in the
early period (because African women were greatly outnumbered by African
males; indeed, the sexual imbalance among African slaves runs as a continuous
theme throughout the era of importations). 131
Mention must also be made of Africans who fled to Native American nations
or who were initially enslaved by Americans but later often became absorbed by
marriage and adoption. This is a complex subject which cannot be explored
here but it seems to have been a common phenomenon from southern Brazil (at
least) to the northern United States.
As early as 1559 Americans in the Bahia region captured a Portuguese slave
vessel from Sao Tome and, as a result, 'os negros de Guine fugirao e
esconderao-se pelos matos'. Exactly where in the mato the Africans fled to is not
clear, but this incident may have led to the founding of an early mixed African-
American free community. 132
Africans often escaped from slavery to form independent quilombos or
cimarron (maroon) communities. In many instances, as in Jamaica, Surinam,
Mexico and Brazil, there is evidence of initial collaboration with American
cimarrones or, at the very least, the abduction of American women. Such
communities were, of course, not always on friendly tenns with neighboring
American groups but warfare has never served to prevent inter-group marriage
(when females or children are captured).
One of the most famous quilombos was that of Palmares in Brazil. In 1644 the
 The Intensification of Contacts, after 1500 63
Dutch with American allies attacked and burned part of Palmares, capturing in
the process 31 prisoners of whom seven were Tupfs (Brazilians) and some of
whom were young mixed-bloods (mulaetJens). Thus, the freedom-seekers at
Palmares included Americans among the Africans, as well as Red-Black
children. Similarly, in Surinam when a young boy and his mother were
captured in 177 5 on a raid against the rebel leader Bonny there is evidence of
an American presence. The young boy could not bear to be touched by any
white person and he constantly referred to the latter as 'Yorica, which in his
language signifies the devil'. Reportedly Yorokan is a Carib word for 'evil spirits'
probably being related to Uracan (hurricane). 133
Individual Africans running away also excercised a great impact upon
Americans, especially in Brazil but throughout the Americas as well. In some
I cases their influence lay in a so-called 'Europeanizing' direction but there was
also considerable Africanizing influence. Rodrigues states: 'I don't know to
I what degree that action was more Europeanizing than Africanizing. Both whites
and Indians underwent a definite Africanization - in food, dress, language,
music, religion, and folklore.' 134
I
Finally, mention must be made of the impact of modern urban developments
which have seen the migration of people of American and African ancestry to
I the great cities of the Americas from Buenos Aires to Toronto and Montreal. In
such settings, especially from New Orleans southwards, a vast melting pot
I seems to have ensued in which American and African strains, mixed often with
European, become lost in a complex although uneven process of fusion. In
I North America the ghettoization of ethnic groups has tended to slow down
this process but the autobiographies of musicians from New Orleans reveal
I that, at least in that area, much American-African .mixture has gone on in
recent times. Moreover, there is occasional intermixture of Afroamericans
I (already often part-American) with Puerto Ricans, Mexicans and other persons
of American of part-American ancestry, including people of reservation
I 'Indian' background.
It is clear, then, that Africans and Americans have been interacting in a
I variety of settings for at least five hundred years. What is, of course, especially
intriguing is that this interaction is not confined to the Americas but extends
I also to Africa and to Europe (where, incidentally, people of African and
American ancestry from Surinam, Aruba, Cura<;ao, French Guiana, Trinidad,
I Dominica, Guyana, and other areas are living today in considerable numbers in
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Paris, London and other cities).
I We can be sure that this process has been, and is, extremely significant in
cultural terms and yet almost nothing has been done to explore the significance
of the subject. Histories of black music in North America, for example, very
I seldom mention 'Indians' in the text or index. It would be tedious, however, to
list all of the examples where writers exploring some aspect of cultural evolution
I have ignored American-African interactions, but elsewhere I will explore some
of the reasons for this omission.
The genetic significance of African-American interaction is also extremely
64 Africans and Native Americans
significant. In fact, two great mixed races have developed in the Americas. The
'
one in which African ancestry is strongest we can call 'Eastern Nco-American'
because it is most characteristic of the eastern half of the Americas. The other
one, in which American ancestry is strongest, we can call 'Western N eo-
American' because it is most characteristic of the area from Chile and parts of
Argentina to western North America.
'Eastern Nco-American' people are part-African, American, European and
sometimes Asian, with the African ancestry being very clearly evident although
not always dominant. 'Western Nco-American' people are part-American,
European, African and sometimes Asian, with the American ancestry being
clearly evident although not always dominant.
Thus the two Nco-American races are essentially the same, in terms of
components, but differ only in the relative proportions of African, American or
European input. In many areas around the Caribbean and in the interior from
Colombia to Rio de Janeiro the two groups blend and overlap. Needless to state
they also meet each other in almost every great city in the United States.
Thus the modern period of interaction which commenced in the 1490s in the
Caribbean and the Iberian peninsula has had unforeseen and extremely
significant results. It remains now to shed light upon the extent and nature of
American-African intermixture by carefully analyzing the various racial terms
employed for mixed persons during the colonial era.