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Free and Enslaved Africans in Newfoundland and Labrador

History is seldom hidden. We simply need to look.

Ed Hollett's avatar
Ed Hollett
May 16, 2022
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In 1597. Edward Swarthye - an African working for wages on an English estate - whipped a future governor of Newfoundland. (Photo: BBC History)

The first Black person – the first sub-Saharan African – to set foot in Newfoundland was probably a sailor on an English supply ship involved in the fishery sometime in the first 150 years or so after Cabot’s v…

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