Who are African Americans?
African Americans are Americans who have ancestors that came from Africa. The history of Africa goes back thousands of years. Over the centuries great civilizations thrived on this vast continent. Some Africans came to North and South America as employers and settlers. Others to Europe. Some historians believe they lived among Native Americans over 1,000 years ago. In the 1500's, many Africans came to America with Spanish explorers. Most arrived as slaves and servants. Millions of Africans were brought to America as slaves before 1860. African-Americans are an important part of the Ethnic Diversity that helps make this country great! African-Americans have made key contributions in various fields. Their contributions have helped shape the rich and varied culture we enjoy today!
Some of the first Africans brought to the American colonies were not slaves. They could enjoy freedom and own land. But by the mid-1600s' slavery was established in the American colonies. This practice was established by the slave codes because slaves were considered people not property. Slavery was widespread in the South, although many Northerners sold slaves. The presence of slavery was the cause of numerous revolt, and resistance among slaves such as Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vesey, Nat turner and Harriet Tubman. While others such as Frederick Douglass, Dred Scott and Sojouirner Truth fought legally against slavery.
President Lincoln freed all slaves in the Confederate States. Slaves in those states (or parts of states) not in rebellion against the U.S. were now freed by this proclamation. The Union Victory put an end to the war over slavery and other issues. The birth of themost successful civil right movement in America began when Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955. A major achievement of this period was passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Martin Luther King, Jr. emerged as a key leader. Reconstruction promoted by federal policies that provided political, social and economic gains, especially in the South.
Many whites in the South reacted violently through the Ku Klux Klan formed in 1865. In the 1870's Jim Crow Laws backed inequalities and segregation in the South. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League were formed in 1910 and 1911 respectively. Beginning in the 1910's, hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved from the South to cities in the North.
During the Civil War the Union enlisted former slaves and eventually allowed them to fight. About 38,000 died. Thousands of African Americans fought in combat or worked at home playing a major part in all three wars.
African American inventors have helped shape our way of life by creating innovative products to improve the work and leisure of Americans. Such products include the stoplight, golf tee, shoe-lasting machine, refrigeration system, cell phones, chicken incubators, ice cream, spark plugs, mail box, riding saddles, fire extinguisher, iron board, Gas mask, automatic gear shift, egg beater, blood plasma and hairbrushes. Science, medicine and education have advanced through the work of African Americans.
The printed word has been a powerful tool for African Americans Several authors such as Langston Hughes, Claude Mckay and James Baldwin have impacted the world of literature. Black women writers such as Ida Wells Barnett, Phyllis Wheatley and Lucy Terry Prince have also lent their talent to the world of writing. In the late 1900's Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Maya Angelo were awarded prizes for their work.
African Americans have left their imprint upon the world of entertainment through venues such as music, dance, sports and fine arts. Religion, politics, and social change have been influenced by several African Americans. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Mary McLeod Bethune, Thurgood Marshall and many others have sacrificed their lives for the advancement of civil and human rights.
West Indian/Caribbean Americans
A discussion of the role of the West Indies must be included in any consideration of African American history. As a result of the slave trade, at least before the Revolutionary war, the United States and the West Indies were economically interdependent. Events such as slave revolts or the passage in the West Indies of ameliorative measures directed toward the treatment of slaves had their effect in the United States.
The period of the slave's orientation into his new way of life was a crucial one for him, whether he was brought first to the West Indies or to the United States. It is certainly true, however that the West Indian system tended to use worse cruelties than did the system in the southern United States. It was in the Sugar Islands that the plantation system had its beginnings, and from there it spread to the North American mainland. Many of the features of the system in the United States, therefore, had their origins in the West Indies. In the analysis was its economic superiority over other forms of labor tried in the New World.
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