Black History

Esteban: Enslaved African Became an Early Explorer of the New World

In 1534, Esteban and the four remaining survivors escaped. As the journey continued, he would become a scout, a diplomat and lead communicator. According to historians, Esteban was a gifted linguist, quickly mastering different Native American languages. He served as translator throughout what became a 15,000-mile journey.

Published

5 years ago

July 7, 2021

Isabelle Price

Depiction of Esteban courtesy of thinkafrica.net

The year 1619 is historical: An English privateer ship reached Point Comfort on the Virginia peninsula. Its arrival represented the dawn of the institution of slavery in America. Today, more than 400 years later, the events of that year remain surrounded by misconceptions and debate.

What historians have uncovered is that the first enslaved African to land on what would become North American soil was named Esteban (de Dorantes from his status as an enslaved person). According to historian Robert Goodwin, “Esteban was shipped to Spain as a slave from the town of Azemmour, in Morocco, in 1522. Andres Dorantes de Carranza purchased him and brought Esteban to [what would later become] Florida in April 1528.”

Long before the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), Esteban, said to have been Muslim and born sometime around 1500 in Morocco, would traverse the land from the Southwest to the Pacific Ocean. His fate would extend beyond servitude and little of his life would be recorded.

Esteban left Spain for the New World in 1527 as part of an expedition to conquer and colonize Florida. The ship landed in the area that is now Tampa Bay, and the explorers wandered through the swamps and jungles for about a year. Several died as a result of hunger, disease, and skirmishes with Native Americans. With only a few boats left, they decided to return to Mexico City.
Hit hard by the Gulf currents, only 15 of the 80 men survived. Choppy waters dragged them to a place just west of the Mississippi: Galveston Island. They began to explore what would become Texas. Soon they were captured and enslaved for five years by the Karankawa Indians.

Still, he was considered Dorantes’ slave.

The trek across Texas to Mexico City was challenging; the explorers were met by both friendly and hostile Native Americans. They were mostly barefoot and naked, and often starved for food. One of the stories told is that along the way they were considered “children of the sun” by some Native American tribes. Others revered them as shamans. But not everyone was fond of the strangers.

The Zuni Indians of Hawikuh in New Mexico grew to distrust Esteban quickly, labeling him a “harbinger of unwanted and dangerous visitors.” In May 1539, they executed him. By the time of his death, some historians say that Esteban and his three companions “had seen more of the North American southwest than any other non-Native American.”

Almost two centuries would pass before another Spanish expedition would discover other Africans living alongside Native Americans near the mouth of the Rio Grande. Historians say that these Africans were likely survivors of other expeditions or shipwrecks. Nevertheless, Esteban had been the first.

Isabelle Price

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Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 2 – 8, 2026

Published

14 hours ago

September 7, 2026

Oakland Post

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Black History

Jackie Wright Champions Bay Area Stories, Filmmakers and Cultural Institutions

As an award-winning communications professional, Wright has worked with corporations, nonprofits, government agencies, educational institutions, artists, and community organizations. In 2026, she expanded that work by launching an introductory public relations class for small businesses and nonprofits, offering practical tools for gaining visibility, shaping messages and building productive relationships with the media.

Published

1 week ago

August 30, 2026

Post News Group

Jackie Wright of Wright Enterprises. Photo courtesy of Wright Enterprises.

By Carla Thomas

Jackie Wright has spent more than two decades helping people, organizations and communities understand the power of a well-told story.

As founder and president of Wright Enterprises, a San Francisco-based strategic communications and public affairs firm, Wright has built a career spanning journalism, public relations, media relations, crisis communications, community engagement and multimedia storytelling.

Wright’s commitment to storytelling is also deeply personal. She wrote and co-directed the 15-minute documentary, “Love Separated in Life…Love Reunited in Honor,” which chronicles the story of her parents, Specialist Five (S5 Wyley Wright Jr. and Ouida Fay McClendon Wright. Her father, a U.S. Army helicopter crew chief, died in Vietnam in 1964 while serving as an honor guard during a visit by then-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Decades later, Wright and her siblings had their father exhumed from a segregated cemetery in Jacksonville, Florida, and their mother moved from her burial place in Georgia so the couple could be reunited at Arlington National Cemetery in 2014.

The family journey later took Wright and her sister to Vietnam, where they discovered the former military compound that had been named in honor of their father and another fallen soldier. The documentary, centered on love, war, family, racial understanding, and remembrance, earned festival recognition at screenings.

“It was quite an honor to learn about my family’s history and share it on film,” said Wright.

That filmmaking experience complements Wright’s longstanding advocacy for independent cinema. She has served as a media partner and brand ambassador for Bay Area film festivals, including the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Oakland International Film Festival, and the Durban International Film Festival in South Africa.

“It’s important to help filmmakers and underrepresented stories reach broader audiences,” said Wright.

Whether promoting a neighborhood organization, championing an independent filmmaker or preserving her own family history, Wright has remained consistent. Through Wright Enterprises, she has turned communications into both a profession and a form of community service, telling stories that might otherwise go unheard.

“Our stories are an integral part of our history, and our history is not only American history, but worldwide,” she said.

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Black History

BOOK REVIEW: Every Inch of a Lady

“Born, bred, toasted, buttered, jellied, and honeyed in Harlem” in 1937, Audrey Smaltz was a force to be reckoned with almost from the time she could walk. Her parents imbued confidence in her; they nurtured her creativity and sent her to charm school, but they never allowed her to create a stir.

Published

1 week ago

August 30, 2026

Post News Group

Audrey Smaltz' latest book "Every Inch a Lady" with Alina Mitchell, is a colorful autobiographical story following a young Black model's pursuit to become a fashion designer in New York City during the pre-Civil Rights era.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: Audrey Smaltz with Alina Mitchell, foreword by Michael Kors, Copyright: c.2026, Publisher: Amistad, SRP: $27.99, Page Count: 256 Pages, Snaps, zippers, buttons, ties.

Toss that garment on, pull it up, wrap it around; you know what you like and how to wear it. The color is perfect for your skin tone, and the fabric enhances your figure. Yep, you always look your best and, as in the new book “Every Inch a Lady” by Audrey Smaltz (with Alina Mitchell), that best is fabulous.

“That,” says Smaltz, “is not what ladies did.”

By the time she was a teenager, Smaltz was modeling for New York City designers. Shortly thereafter, she started working for a married man with whom she had an affair, and whom she loved very much. She broke up with him, attended college, and worked a series of jobs that taught her about fashion and jobs that didn’t seem to fit her. An ill-fated marriage took her to Chicago, where she ultimately landed a position that sent her to work in Ebony magazine’s New York office.

Working at Ebony was a career-changer, in a way. Smaltz traveled the world and learned more about fashion, but she didn’t exactly get along with her boss.

Finally, seizing an opportunity, Smaltz decided to launch her own company, Audrey Smaltz, Inc., a “fashion production business,” but she couldn’t get any designers to take a chance on her. Undaunted, she reorganized, re-branded, hit the streets, and knocked on doors until she finally found one client, which led to many others.

Through it all, her personal life was a whirlwind. She dated “more men than you can shake a book at,” settling down occasionally, briefly. Fashion had always been her first love, but she accidentally found real love, “the love of a woman,” at a leadership course…

There’s an old saying that writers need to add lots of “color” into their stories. Read a little of “Every Inch a Lady,” and you’ll notice immediately that author Audrey Smaltz (with Alina Mitchell) quite literally takes that to heart by mentioning nearly every color of the spectrum here. Hmm.

That oddity aside, Smaltz is a wonderfully lively storyteller, speaking with the energy of a woman much younger to the heart of anyone who loves fashion. That glee extends to collectors of vintage clothing, who will be delighted to read about the industry long ago and the way things worked then. Smaltz says she experienced racism, which is not unusual for pre-Civil Rights America, but doors were surprisingly closed for other reasons that will astound anyone who’s savvy about the fashion industry, even today.

There’s quite a bit of name-dropping in this book, but most of it belongs in the anecdotes, so you likely won’t mind. If you’re a fashionista, too, find “Every Inch a Lady,” and snap it up.