Who was the first black or African American recorded to live in the United States or the Americas.?

Question

Was he/she a slave? They did not have Black History Month when I was in school.

Answer 1

Historically, the first Africans are said to have arrived in the American colonies in 1619. There are no names given, nor is their legal status mentioned, so it is not known if they were slaves or free people of color.

The first African American to be baptized a christian is reported to be a male child, son of Isabel and William ( No last name), becoming a member of the Anglican Church in Jamestown, Virginia. This event took place in 1623.

In 1624, William Tucker is born in Jamestown, Virginia. It is believed that he is the first African American child born in the American colonies.

Answer 2

There are people who believe people from African descent were in America long before slaves came here. They were rumored to have come from North Africa through Italy and perhaps Spain. Some folks even think they may have crossed the Atlantic direct from the African Continent.

Given the history of Italy/Spain/North Africa this is very likely to be a possibility. William Shakespear's Orthello has the main character being a Black Man aka as The Moor. The Moors were very influential and my personal opinion is that is indeed possible they came to Ameica as part of the voluntary exodus from Southern Europe. I am sure there is some scholarly writing some where about thiese people but I have no knowledge of such.

Unfortunately Black History month omits much in America prior to the slave trade so I encourage you to do some checking on your own. You may just be on to something here.

Answer 3

The term African American really only applies to those of African descent who are culturally raised in the US, typically going back several generations, while black would simply denote someone whose skin color matched that of the peoples who initially inhabited sub-Saharan Africa.

Many of the first black people who lived in the American colonies (before it became the United States) were brought as slaves, but some may have also come as free men and women, or started as slaves and later became free. The first African slaves to come to the New World arrived in 1502, as Portuguese slavers brought them to the Caribbean.

Most of the African slaves brought to the new world were used in the Caribbean and South America. Only 6% of the estimated 10 million slaves imported to the Americas ended up in British North America. In 1619, a shipload of African slaves arrived in Jamestown, marking the first arrival of slaves in British colonies. Of the 100 brought on board the Dutch privateer ship, only 20 survived the journey to arrive in Jamestown to be sold - some of these eventually earned their freedom as they were treated more like indentured servants than property.

However, it is entirely possible that the first black man or woman to live in the Americas might not have been a slave. Some of the early explorers often had ship's crews of mixed nationalities, and it may be that one of the earliest expeditions to settle in the Americas included some African-born sailor, or a sailor of mixed African and European blood. This is all speculation on my part, so I leave it to you to determine if this is likely or unlikely.

But we do know that blacks were brought as slaves from Africa to the Americas as early as 1502, almost a hundred years before English settlers began starting colonies along the east coast of North America. African slaves arrived in Jamestown in 1619 and in New Amsterdam (now New York) in 1626, and in Pennsylvania in 1684. In the 1500s, African slaves were brought to Spanish settlements in the Carolinas and Florida.

Answer 4

There isn't a first one - excluding those who fled across the Mason Dixon Line - the Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves in 1863 and the 14th Amendment made them all US citizens at the same time. Your question could be restated as who is the first black person to cast a ballot in the United States....

Answer 5

I know the blues artist Leadbelly was recorded in the early thirties while still in prison. The song was one he wrote, called "Good Night Irene".

Answer 6

?? they brought them over by the ship loads. They would not record them or have a census of them at the time b/c they were not considered Britich or American.

Answer 7

jesse jackson