Afro-Caribbean history

François-Dominique Toussaint Louverture
Toussaint Louverture Leader of the Haitian Revolution
Born	c. 1743 Saint-Domingue
Died	7 April 1803(1803-04-07) Fort-de-Joux
Other names	Toussaint L'Ouverture, Toussaint l'Ouverture. Toussaint Breda

For a history of Afro-Caribbean people in the UK, see British African Caribbean community.

Afro-Caribbean (or African-Caribbean) history is the portion of Caribbean history that specifically discusses the Afro-Caribbean or Black racial (or ethnic) populations of the Caribbean region. Most Afro-Caribbeans are the descendants of captive Africans held in the Caribbean from 1502 to 1886 during the era of the Atlantic slave trade.

Black people from the Caribbean who have migrated (voluntarily, or by force) to the U.S., Canada, Europe, Africa and elsewhere add a significant Diaspora element to Afro-Caribbean history. Because of the complex history of the region, many people who identify as Afro-Caribbean also have European, Middle Eastern, Taino, Chinese and/or East Indian genealogies.

It is these peoples, who in the past were referred to and self-identified collectively as Coloured, Black or Negro West Indians, who now generally consider themselves to be black, mixed heritage, creole or African descendant people in the Caribbean and its Diasporas. Their history has been studied by historians such as C.L.R. James (author of The Black Jacobins), Eric Williams and Peter Fryer – and it is their history that is the focus of this article.

The archipelagos and islands of the Caribbean were the first sites of African diaspora dispersal in the western Atlantic during the post-Columbian era. Specifically, in 1492, Pedro Alonso Niño, a black Spanish seafarer, piloted one of Columbus's ships. He returned in 1499, but did not settle. In the early 16th century, more Africans began to enter the population of the Spanish Caribbean colonies, sometimes as freedmen, but increasingly as enslaved servants, workers and labourers. This growing demand for African labour in the Caribbean was in part the result of massive depopulation caused by the massacres, harsh conditions and disease brought by European colonists to the Taino and other indigenous peoples of the region.