History of Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States de Oñate. In all, Spaniards probed half of today's lower 48 states before the first English colonization attempt (Roanoke Island, 1585). The Spanish didn't just explore, they settled, creating the first permanent European settlement in the continental United States, at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565. Santa Fe, New Mexico also predates Jamestown, Virginia (of Pocahontas fame, founded in 1607) and Plymouth Colony (of "Mayflower", Pilgrims and Thanksgiving fame). In 1566 Pedro Menendez established Fort San Felipe on Santa Elena- which is present day Parris Island near Beaufort South Carolina. The fort was part of the Spanish King’s ongoing effort to
History of slavery in Iowa History of slavery in Iowa During the early exploration, the area of what is now Iowa was part of New France and, as such, was governed by its slavery laws. French settlers first brought African slaves into the Upper Louisiana from Saint-Domingue around 1720 under the legal terms of the Code Noir, which defined the conditions of slavery in the French empire and restricted the activities of free Black persons. At the time, nine hundred slaves lived in the territory, as well as at least three hundred slaves the French took with them as they left for the lands west