The Spanish were among the earliest Europeans in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. They brought Africans to the Spanish Main—now known as Central American, Colombia and Venezuela. The Spanish had first enslaved Native Americans, but disease and warfare left too few of them to be a productive work force. About six percent of all Africans brought across the Atlantic were sold in Spanish America—more than were sold in British North America.
The Spanish brought Africans to their American colonies to work in gold and silver mines as well as on plantations and cattle ranches. Mexico alone imported about 250,000 Africans during the course of the slave trade. Many of them worked alongside the remaining Native American slaves in Mexico's silver mines.
Over time, many slaves were freed and, at one point in the eighteenth century, there were more free blacks than slaves in Spanish America.
Now learn about other destinations of the slave trade, or go to the Forum to
discuss the slave trade and its impact on history.
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