This Day in History: 1526-04-22

The first revolt of enslaved Africans in what is now the United States occurs in what is now South Carolina or Georgia. Although 1619 marks the start of continuous enslavement of Africans on the land of the present-day United States, the first attempt to enslave Africans within this land occurred 93 years earlier when Spanish explorers brought 100 slaves with them to the doomed settlement settlement of San Miguel de Gualdape (also referred to as “Tiera De Ayllon” or the “Land of Ayllon”) in what is now South Carolina or Georgia. Within weeks of their arrival, those enslaved Africans revolted. Then they vanished. Thus the first enslaved Africans in America were also the first to revolt, initiating a pattern for numerous and regular revolts by enslaved Africans in America over the next 3 1/2 centuries, wholly contrary to the white supremacist narrative that Africans were only suited for chattel servitude and incapable of freedom. Learn more.