First Muslim Immigrant to North America

“Estevanico, a North African Muslim captive” comes to North America on an expedition led by Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvaez; becoming the first documented Muslim immigrant to North America.

De Soto and the Spaniards plan to rendezvous with ships in Alabama when they are attacked by Native Americans. Hundreds of Native Americans are killed in the ensuing battle.

 The “New Laws” barring Indian enslavement were repealed at the insistence of New World colonists, who developed a society and economy dependent on slave labor.

After European contact in the 1500s, white Europeans persuade Native Americans to enslave members of other Native American tribes using the European method of slave-trading, which focuses on the accumulation of captives for sale and thus, profit, rather than for population augmentation.