Juan (Jan) Rodriguez

Who is Juan (Jan) Rodriguez?

Juan Rodriguez, born in Santo Domingo—currently the capital of the Dominican Republic—was the son of a Portuguese sailor and an African woman and was the first documented non-Native American to live on Manhattan Island. As such, he is considered the first non-native resident of what would eventually become New York City, predating the Dutch settlers. He is also considered the first immigrant, the first person of African heritage, the first person of European heritage, the first merchant, the first Latino, and the first Dominican to settle in Manhattan.

Raised in a culturally diverse household in the Spanish settlement of Santo Domingo, Rodrigues was known for his linguistic talents and was hired by the Dutch captain Thijs Volckenz Mossel of the Jonge Tobias to serve as the translator on a trading voyage to the Native American island of Mannahatta. Arriving in 1613, Rodrigues soon came to learn the Algonquinian language of the Lenape people and married into the local community. When Mossel's ship returned to the Netherlands, Rodrigues stayed behind with his native American family and set up his own trading post with goods given to him by Mossel, consisting of eighty hatchets, some knives, a musket and a sword.