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Timeline


Below find a timeline of the African presence in the Americas. It is divided into three sections for easy viewing. Click on a time period to view its timeline.

1000 B.C. - 1800 A.D. | 1800 - 1960 | 1960 - 1992 | Full Timeline

1000 BC Olmecs - La Venta
800 BC African contact with Americas
100 AD Classic Mayan Empire
500 Nok civilization, West Africa
700 - 1250 Empire of Ghana
1200 Aztec Empire
1300 - 1450 Empire of Mali
1324 Mansa Musa makes pilgrimage
1450 - 1590 Empire of Songhai
1492

Columbus voyages to the Western Hemisphere accompanied by explorers and servants of African descent, lands at San Salvador, Cuba and Hispaniola.

Moorish Empire comes to an end in Spain; Moors expelled from Grenada.

Jews expelled from Spain.

Askia Muhammad expands borders of the African Empire of Songhai.

1493 Columbus' second voyage, lands at Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
1497 English sailor John Cabot reaches North America.
1498

Columbus departs Spain on his third voyage to America; he reaches Trinidad and South America.

Portuguese sea captain, Vasco da Gama, sails to India.

1500

Portuguese sea captain Pedro Cabral reaches Brazil.

Portuguese trading vigorously with the people of the Kongo in Africa; they begin exporting slaves.

European monarchs heavily finance exploration hoping to become richer.

1502 Columbus departs Spain on his fourth voyage and reaches Central America.
1505 Portuguese ships attack key African ports and try to control trade.
1506 Columbus dies in Valladolld.
1513 Thirty Africans accompany Balboa to Pacific Ocean.
1518 Las Casas suggests importing Africans for slave labor. Atlantic Slave Trade begins.
1521 Spanish Conquistador Hernando Cortez defeats the Aztec Kingdom.
1526

King Alfonso of the Kongo writes a letter to Portuguese King John asking him to put an end to the kidnapping of his people for slavery.

Negro slaves in first settlement in United States (a Spanish colony in the area of present-day South Carolina) revolted and fled to the Indians.

1530 The Inca Kingdom conquers much of South America.
1533 Pizarro executes Incan King and imposes Spanish rule on Peru.
1538 Estevanico leads expedition and discovers Arizona and New Mexico.
1600 The Kongo Kingdom comes to an end due to wars sparked by the Portuguese.
1605 Quilambo dos Palmares founded, Brazil.
1619 History of Negro in English America began with landing of "twenty negars" at Jamestown, Virginia.
1621 Dutch enter the slave trade.
1665 First Maroon War in Jamaica.
1712 Slave revolt, New York.
1739 Slave revolt, Stono, South Carolina.
1741 Slave conspiracy, New York City.
1754 Benjamin Banneker builds first clock in U.S.
1767 Phillis Wheatley publishes poem.
1773 First Black Baptist Church organized, South Carolina.
1775 Peter Salem and Salem Poor fight in Battle at Bunker Hill.
1776 Declaration of Independence adopted.
1777 Vermont abolishes slavery.
1787

Free African Society organized, Philadelphia. PA.

African Free School organized in New York City.

1794 Toussaint L'Ouverture leads rebellion in Haiti.

1000 B.C. - 1800 A.D. | 1800 - 1960 | 1960 - 1992 | Full Timeline