Juan Garrido was not the only free Black man on the North American continent. Another legendary African would prove to be more of an explorer than any of the handsome, rebellious Black Americans who came before him. And while Garrido was never a permanent resident of Florida, Puerto Rico, or California, Mustafa Azemmouri, who went by the street name Esteban, became a legend in places that wouldn’t be called “America” for at least two centuries. Not only did he explore more of the North American continent than Lewis or Clark, but he did it before most of the Jamestown settlers were even born.
