The first slaves in Venezuela: Introduction

History of slavery in Venezuela Introduction: The first African slaves in America: 1520 – 1600

Who were the first African slaves brought to Venezuela? What were their beliefs ? Where in Africa were they captured ?

Estimates indicate that slavery begun in Venezuela in 1526, however it was after 1560 when the big slave ships came, mostly French, Portuguese, English and Dutch slave traders. These pioneer groups marked the beginnings of a tragedy that would extend for four centuries: The traffic of human beings. According to the UNESCO’s The slave route project , 17 million Africans were deported from their homeland and taken to America, mostly to the West Indies, Brazil and North America. During the XVI century, three thousand slaves were sold in this territory.

Venezuela represented only 1.3 % of the slave trade to America.

The slave route involved three continents and covered 15.000 kilometers…….. In what is known as the slavery triangle.

4 European slave ships took back gold, silver, pearls, sugar, coffee and other goods. 2 In Africa , the captains traded guns, fabrics and liquor for captured natives. 3 The Africans were transported in chains and sold in slave markets in America. THE SLAVERY TRIANGLE 1 The ships left from European ports loaded with goods to be exchanged for slaves.

The first slaves in Venezuela

(1526 – 1600 )

The first African slaves arrived around 1526. According to available records 1000 have been registered by 1566.

In these early groups, 151 slaves were sold in 1565 in the port of Borburata, one of the first settlements in Venezuela, near where today is the city of Puerto Cabello.

The ship that carried these slaves was commanded by a well known English pirate, his name was John Hawkins.

The early days of slavery in America His second voyage marked the beginning of slavery as an international enterprise, a trade that would build great fortunes across Europe.

Introduction: History of slavery in Venezuela

Sources:

STRAUSS, Rafael A. Aproximación a una demografía de la esclavitud negra en Venezuela, siglos XVI y XVII. TF. [online]. 2004, vol.22, no.85 [citado 11 Junio 2008], p.75-106.

Acosta Saignes, Miguel. (1967). Vida de los esclavos negros en Venezuela, Hespérides, Caracas.

Arcila Farías, Eduardo. (1946). Economía colonial de Venezuela, Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 509 p.

Burrage, Henry S. (Henry Sweetser), 1837-1926, ed.Early English and French voyages, chiefly from Hakluyt, 1534-1608, ed. by Henry S. Burrage Published/Created: New York, C. Scribner's Sons, 1906. Related Names: Hakluyt, Richard, 1552?-1616.

UNESCO, Slave route Project (1994) http://www.unesco.org/culture/dialogue/slave/images/Apdf.PDF

Africans in Latin America - Bibliography

compiled by Caitlin Ream, Newspapers and Periodicals of the African Diaspora, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison, http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~danky/diaspora