First Africans Shipped to Hispaniola

1501

Spanish officials on Hispaniola, watching Taino laborers die in the mines, petitioned the Crown for enslaved Africans to replace them. The first small consignments landed that year. A commerce in human beings, soon measured in millions, had begun its grim Atlantic passage. The decision set in motion a transatlantic commerce that would forcibly transport an estimated twelve million Africans over four centuries.