1500–1518: (The Transatlantic Pivot to African Bondage): African presence in Ayiti began as early as 1500, with the first official shipment sent by King Ferd…

1500–1518: (The Transatlantic Pivot to African Bondage): African presence in Ayiti began as early as 1500, with the first official shipment sent by King Ferdinand in 1510 to work the mines and sugar fields. Bishop Las Casas ironically advocated for this shift to spare the indigenous population, leading to a permanent “hecatomb” of human suffering. By 1503, many Africans had already practiced “marronage,” fleeing into the mountains to form free communities. In 1518, Carlos V granted a formal slaving monopoly that set an annual limit of 4,000 captives, many sourced from the coasts of Dahomey and Guinea. This era established the “Coast of Slaves” as the new ancestral root for the island’s future revolutionary majority.