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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 29, 1992                   TAG: 9201290326
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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SPANIARDS BROUGHT FIRST AFRICANS

I OFFER comments on two topics:

First, Oliver Hill (commentary page, Jan. 22) says that African-Americans came to this continent a year before the Pilgrims. According to Webster's Geographical Dictionary, Spaniards imported African slaves to Hispaniola in 1512 to work the gold mines, having exterminated the Arawak Indians by such forced labor. (Columbus died in 1506, so don't blame him!)

The Spaniards occupied Florida in 1513, 250 years before ceding it to England; so that was the first site on this continent to be occupied by Africans.

Second comment, on the question: Who is a Native American? As I understand it, anyone born in the United States of America is a native of this country, and therefore is a Native American. ANTHA C. McDONALD ROANOKE

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