TIMELINES
Comprehensive List of Feature and Television Films about Slavery in America
Chronology of European and American Race-based Chattel Slavery
1441
European Slave Trade Begins in Africa
The European slave trade begins in Africa when two Portuguese captains capture, transport, and enslave twelve Africans from Cabo Branco (modern Mauritania).
1442
Sugar is planted for the first time
Sugar is planted for the first time on the Portuguese island of Madeira – the first sugar-slave complex. For the first time, enslaved Africans are put to work on sugar plantations.
September 1526
Approximately one hundred enslaved African laborers brought by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón
Approximately one hundred enslaved African laborers brought by Lucas Vázquez de Ayllón in a Spanish expedition arrive in La Florida to form and support the new Spanish settlement San Miguel de Gualdape, close to present-day Sapelo Island, Georgia. The short-lived colony is intact for less than two months; many of the enslaved rebel. The settlement is abandoned by November 1526.
1560
Enslaved and free Africans are brought to establish St. Augustine
Enslaved and free Africans are brought by the Spanish admiral and explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles and perform labor to establish St. Augustine, America’s oldest city, in what is now Florida. In 1565, De Aviles becomes the first governor of La Florida.