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First European Explorers to America May Have Included Africans

 

History books suggest the first Africans arrived in the Americas with the slave trade, which began soon after the Virginia Colony was founded in 1607 (see Gene Study Shows Most Black Americans Have Some European Ancestry). However, a new study suggests the first Africans may have arrived in the New World over one hundred years earlier than previously thought. In fact, Africans may have arrived with Christopher Columbus.

A research team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison led by archaeologist T. Douglas Price has been studying members of Christopher Columbus’ crew that were buried at La Isabela. La Isabela was the first permanent settlement established in the New World by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493-94. The settlement (located in present-day Dominican Republic) was substantial and consisted of fortifications, a church, a customhouse, a storehouse and multiple private dwellings. Unfortunately, La Isabela was only inhabited for five years before it was abandoned by the Spanish. Nevertheless, the graveyard associated with the church contains the remains of many of Christopher Columbus’s crew, several of whom died of scurvy, a common ailment in the 1500s on long sea voyages.

Although the research is still a work in progress, what the researchers have found so far is simply amazing and could have significant implications for genealogy, particularly for anyone tracing their African American roots. Christopher Columbus’ second voyage to the New World consisted of a fleet of 17 vessels. Official Spanish records list a crew of only European men. However, by studying the tooth enamel of the people buried in the cemetery at La Isabela, researchers seem to have discovered a far different truth. In spite of the official record, the settlement appeared to have contained women and children as well as men of African origin.

The diet in sub Sahara Africa was far different from the diet in Europe in the fifteenth century. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been able to ascertain that the difference between a lifelong African diet and a lifelong European diet would be evident in the structure of a person’s tooth enamel. The teeth of three out of the twelve bodies examined so far indicate a distinct African diet. All three bodies are of men who died around the age of forty and all three appear to be of African origin. “I would bet money this person was an African” said team leader Dr. Price in regards to one of the skeletons.

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