The earliest date marking Negroes’ arrival in the Americas is 1501.

Evidence

Richard R. Wright, the Black historian, wrote at the beginning of this century: “It was during the year 1501 that Columbus was deposed from the government of the Indies, and he may probably himself have been cognizant of the fact that Negro slaves had been introduced into the new Spanish possessions.” “The year 1501 is the date of the earliest reference in American history to Negroes coming from Spain to America. Sir Arthur Helps, in his Spanish Conquest in America, states that, in the year mentioned, instructions were given to the authorities that while Jews, Moors, or new converts were not to be permitted to go to the Indies or to remain there, ‘Negroes born in the power of Christians were to be allowed to pass to the Indies.’” Wright, “Negro Companions of the Spanish Explorers,” American Anthropologist 4, no. 2 (April/June 1902): 218. (Wright’s piece bore this note from the editor of the journal: “The interest in this paper is enhanced by the fact that it is the result of research by a native of the race which took such a prominent part in the discovery and colonization of the New World.” Ibid., p. 217.) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1913