African American history

African American history is the history of an ethnic group in the United States also known as black Americans. The majority of African-Americans are the descendants of enslaved Africans transported from West and Central Africa to the States during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Others have arrived through more recent immigration from the Caribbean, South America and other areas of the African continent.

Related Topics:
United States - West - Central Africa - Trans-Atlantic slave trade

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Name:Meriam Raafat 5th of oct.2005

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To:Ms. Reham

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Grade 10/d

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african american history

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Like other blacks in the Western Hemisphere, the progenitors of the overwhelming majority of African Americans were brought to North America as African slaves between the 1600s and 1807. (The importation of slaves into the U.S. was outlawed in 1807). In North America, African slaves could be found primarily in the southern half of the British colonies, although slaves also were owned in the Spanish colony of Florida and the French colony of Louisiana. As chattel slaves in perpetuity, African slaves and their progeny were considered the property of their owners and had no rights. Slaves often were considered little more than beasts of burden, or draught horses. Records of slave births, deaths and sales or trade transactions often were maintained in ledgers alongside similar records of farm animals.

Related Topics:
Western Hemisphere - Slaves - 1600s - 1807 - British colonies - Spanish colony - Florida - French colony - Louisiana - Chattel slaves

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The U.S. Constitution of 1787 said that slaves, who at no time had the right to vote in any state, should count as part of the population at the ratio of three persons counted per five slaves. Many African-American spokespersons have translated this into a belief that slaves counted as 3/5 of a person, which is a rough approximation of the truth of their status. Students of the abolitionist movement, however, note that slaves would have been better off if they were not counted as people at all: the population counts added pro-slavery members of the House of Representatives and added electoral votes for pro-slavery Presidential nominees.

Related Topics:
U.S. Constitution - 1787

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The twin doctrines of white supremacy and its corollary, a belief in the inherent inferiority of blacks, combined with capitalism to create a powerful rationale for slavery. Nationwide, de facto and de jure segregation and discrimination based on the notion of race were accepted and effective tools to enforce and entrench a pervasive system of white power and privilege and black oppression and disadvantage.

Related Topics:
White supremacy - Blacks - Capitalism - Segregation - Discrimination - Race

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After the American Revolution (1775-1783), changing economic conditions resulted in the decline and end of what limited slavery there was in the North. Conversely, the rapid spread of cotton cultivation in the South encouraged the growth of slavery there. By 1860, 3.8 million slaves accounted for one third of the total population of the southern states.

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Contrary to popular belief, however, not all blacks in America were slaves. By the year 1860, well over 11% of the total black population in the U.S. was free. There were approximately 500,000 free blacks who lived throughout the United States, with slightly more than half residing in the South. Because of the high monetary value placed on strong, healthy slaves capable of hard physical labor and reproduction, free blacks often lived in constant danger of being kidnapped and sold into slavery.

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After having completed the labor required of them by their masters, some slaves were permitted to perform work for hire. In this way, over time some were able to purchase their freedom. Once free, many then continued to save their incomes in order to purchase their entire families' freedom. Others sometimes were manumitted, usually upon the death of their masters, and still others escaped to freedom. The Underground Railroad was a series of well-traveled escape routes to the North along which people sympathetic to the anti-slavery cause provided refuge, food and directions to safeguard and speed fugitive slaves on their journey North.

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In the North, many free blacks joined the abolitionist cause, and tens of thousands of free black men and fugitive slaves enthusiastically joined the ranks of the Union Army after the Civil War began.

Related Topics:
Abolitionist - Union Army

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