Forty years before Jamestown was founded in 1565, the Spanish fleet began an enterprise to establish what would become “La Florida.”

La Florida would be built by three groups: Europeans, indigenous and Africanas, whom were free men. The Africans were also skilled workers. Many were shopkeepers, artisans and craftsmen– key to the city’s functioning.

Before the English city of Jamestown was even founded, a free black child was baptized in St. Augustine.

The first slaves that did arrive in the New World were domestic or royal Spanish slaves with highly defined skills.

When the British arrived in America, they utilized indentured servants with the promise of freedom after seven years, but they found this did not work well.

Eventually two America’s would emerge: A British land with enslaved Africans and a Spanish home with free Africans.

Their worlds would one day collide, including their ideas on how to build colonies.