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  • Writer's pictureGerry Medina

1526: History. Context. Perspective.


One of the most astonishing things you learn from looking at a timeline of chattel slavery in the United States is just how long it was around. The year 1619 is often cited as the beginning of slavery in this country. However, in 1526 a group of Spanish explorers arrived in the Carolinas with an estimated 100 enslaved people. This marks the beginning of the atrocious, barbaric, and horrifying history of chattel slavery in what is now the U.S.

With 1526 in mind, enslavement of African people by Europeans had existed in what is now the United States for roughly…

…94 years by the time the Mayflower hit Plymouth Rock in 1620…

…250 years by the time the Declaration of Independence had been signed…

…263 years by the time George Washington became president…

…282 years by the time the Atlantic slave trade was abolished…

…339 years by the time the last enslaved people were freed on June 19th, 1865…

That is a 339-year history of chattel slavery in what is now the United States. What followed was a period of Reconstruction from 1865 to 1877. That was followed by Jim Crow from 1877 to roughly 1964. In total, that is a 438-year history. It’s only been 58 years since then—58 tumultuous years of institutional racism, redlining, discrimination in health care and banking, a racist criminal justice system, policing, assassinations, voter suppression, etc.


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