Transcription
Before the United States existed, an African king in Mexico was already free. And Spain could not stop him. They erased this man from every textbook. Stay with me.
His name was Gaspar Yanga. Born around 1545. Believed to be of royal lineage from the Yangbara people of Gabon, West Africa. Captured, enslaved, shipped to the sugarcane plantations of Vera Cruz, Mexico. They chose the wrong one. It didn't start as an escape. It started as a revolt.
On a plantation named Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, Our Lady of the Conception, a plantation named for the church, and he burned his chains on its soil. In 1570, Yanga led a group of enslaved Africans off the plantation and into the mountains near Córdoba. They built a settlement, a palenque, hidden in the highlands near Mexico's highest mountain. And they lived free for 40 years. 40 years before Spain even tried to stop them.
They farmed. They grew cotton, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, and raised cattle. They built a society, a government, a military. And they raided Spanish caravans on the Camino Real, the royal road between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, liberating supplies and freeing every enslaved African they could find. Spain knew they were there. Spain was afraid to move. Their numbers grew to 500 strong.
And around 1600, another free African, Francisco de la Matosa, an Angolan warrior, brought his own band of escaped fighters up the mountain to join them. Two free African nations united. And here is what they never teach you. Yanga offered Spain peace. He sent terms. The raids would end in exchange for their freedom and their land. Spain refused. Spain chose war. They were about to learn what 40 years of freedom builds.
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