jan 1, 1570 - Gaspar Yanga
Description:
Yanga, aka Nyanga, was said to be of the Bran people and a member of the royal family of Gabon. He was captured and sold into slavery in Mexico, where he was called Gaspar Yanga. Before the end of the slave trade, New Spain had the fifth-highest slave population (estimated 200,000) of the Americas after Brazil (over 4.9 million), the United States (over 4 million), Cuba (over 1 million) and Hispaniola, where unpaid labor is still a practice in Haiti; it also developed a free black population.
Around 1570, Yanga led a band of slaves in escaping to the highlands near Veracruz. They built a small maroon colony or palenque. Its isolation helped protect it for more than 30 years, and other fugitive slaves found their way there. Because the people survived in part by raiding caravans taking goods along the Camino Real (Royal Road) between Veracruz and Mexico City, in 1609 the Spanish colonial government decided to undertake a campaign to regain control of this territory.
In 1871, five decades after Mexican independence, Yanga was designated as a "national hero of Mexico" and El Primer Libertador de las Americas ("the first liberator of the Americas"). This was based largely on an account by historian Vicente Riva Palacio. The influential Riva Palacio was also a novelist, short story writer, military general, and mayor of Mexico City.
Added to timeline:
Atlantic Slave Trade & American Civil Rights
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