Juan Garrido with Spanish Explorers
Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. discusses two of the earliest
Africans to arrive in the Americas—men who journeyed to this continent a
century before the first “20 And Odd” Africans arrived in Jamestown,
Virginia, in 1619.
Juan Garrido, a free black African, joined Spanish explorers in
present-day Florida in 1513. He later helped Cortez take Mexico before
moving on to California in search of gold.
Twenty years later, a black explorer known as Esteban the Moor
struggled to cross a Texas desert—he was just one of four survivors of a
Spanish expedition that went horribly wrong. A guide and translator for
his companions, Esteban and his group had walked 15,000 miles by 1536
and seen more of the North American continent did than any explorers
would until Lewis and Clark.
To learn more, tune in to PBS on October 22, 2013, 8-9 pm ET, for episode one of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Check the local listings on the broadcast schedule.
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