The First African Slaves in America
In 1526, almost 100 years before Jamestown the first African slaves arrived in what would later become the United States. Evidence suggests these slaves along with many of the Portuguese and Spanish "men, women and children" were left behind to mix with the Native tribes. Three or four generations later these mixed Native tribes would meet the English at Jamestown.
Long before there was a John BUNCH OR a John PUNCH there were African slaves mixing with the Indians and the English.
LUCAS VASQUEZ DE AYLLON (c. 1475-1526), Spanish adventurer and colonizer in America, was born probably in Toledo, Spain, about 1475. He accompanied Nicolas Ovando to Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) in 1502, and there became a magistrate of La Concepcion and other towns, and a member of the superior court of Hispaniola. He engaged with great profit in various commercial enterprises, became interested in a plan for the extension of the Spanish settlements to the North American mainland, and in 1521 sent Francisco Gordillo on an exploring expedition which touched on the coast of the Florida peninsula and coasted for some distance northward. Gordillo's report of the region was so favourable that Ayllon in 1523 obtained from Charles V. A rather indefinite charter giving him the right to plant colonies. He sent another reconnoitring expedition in 1525, and early in 1526 he himself set out with 500 colonists and about 100 African slaves. He touched at several places along the coast, at one time stopping long enough to replace a wrecked ship with a new one, this being considered the first instance of shipbuilding on the North American continent. Sailing northward to about latitude 330° 40', he began the construction of a town which he called San Miguel. The exact location of this town is in dispute, some writers holding that it was on the exact spot upon which Jamestown, Va., was later built; more probably, however, as Lowery contends, it was near the mouth of the Pedee river. The employment of negro slaves here was undoubtedly the first instance of the sort in what later bacame the United States. The spot was unhealthy and fever carried off many of the colonists, including Ayllon himself, who died on the 18th of October 1526. After the death of their leader dissensions broke out among the colonists, some of the slaves rebelled and escaped into the forest, and in December the town was abandoned and the remnant of the colonists embarked for Hispaniola, less than 150 arriving in safety. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Lucas_Vasquez_De_Ayllon
De Ayllón's expedition sailed from Hispaniola to South Carolina on two ships; the settlers included African slaves. The colony, called San Miguel de Guadalupe, was disrupted by a fight over leadership. During this turmoil, the slaves revolted and fled the colony to live among the Native Americans (the Cofitachiqui). The colony soon came to an end as de Ayllón and the other colonists died in a fever epidemic.Jamestown English and Native Marriages
[Vol. 2589, folio 61]
Marquess of Flores to Philip III, King of Spain
Letter
1 Aug. 1612
Reported by a source that "some of the people who have gone there, think now some of them should marry the women of the savages of that country; and he tells me that there are already 40 or 50 thus married." Also reported that the other Englishmen, after being put among them, have become savages themselves while the women, whom they took out, also have gone among the savages where they have been received & treated well. A minister who admonished them was "seriously wounded in many places" because "he reprehended them."As early as 1612 some 40-50 men had taken these Native women - probably mixed Native women as wives and some of the English men and women had went to live with these likely 'mixed race' Natives.
And the DNA Proves
The Sizemore, Lawson, Helton, and many other families associated with the Melungeons have the Native American haplogroup.
The Reverend Alexander Whitakerr who lived on the James River taught Pocahantas the Christian principles. She learned to act and dress like an English woman in his home where his housekeeper Martha SIZEMORE resided.
PROVING YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE ROBERTA ESTES
Scientists know today that there are only two primary haplogroups indicating deep ancestry that are found among Native American males who were here prior to contact with Indo-Europeans, and those haplogroups are C and Q3. It is not accurate to say that all C and Q3 individuals exist only in the American Native population, but the American Native population is part of the larger group worldwide that comprises C and Q3. We find little to no C or Q3 in European or African populations, although we do learn more every single day in this infant science.
This sometimes becomes confusing, because the single most common male haplogroup among current Cherokee tribal members who have tested is R1b. How can this be, you ask? Clearly, one of three possibilities exists:
The Cherokee (or those tribes who were assimilated into the Cherokee) adopted a European male into the tribe or a European male fathered a child that was subsequently raised as Cherokee.
The R1b ancestor was not adopted into the tribe, maintained their European/American identity but married a Cherokee individual. This might be the case where one of the 8 great-grandparents in our example was white, and the other 7 were not.
There is some level of R1b admixture in the Native Population that preceded contact with Europeans that we have not yet identified.
