Racial Relations

My African heritage is very complex because not much can be known about it. In general terms I descend from West Africans slaves brought to this area. The slaves were stripped of their history and thus it is difficult to pinpoint the exact course my family took to get here, but the path can be traced by a short history of slavery in America.

A major portion of my background is African by way of slavery in the colonies and the United States of America. The migration of my ancestors was forced during the slave trade began around the 14th century and slavery. Going back as most records will allow show that "In fact, the first twenty "Negar" slaves had arrived from the West Indies in a Dutch vessel and were sold to the governor and a merchant in Jamestown in late August of 1619, as reported by John Rolfe to John Smith back in London" (Chronology on the History of Slavery). Most of the slaves came from Western coasts of Africa and were sent to islands such as Cuba and Haiti. This migration was a brutal and dangerous expedition. Many were killed as they traveled the long distances. An example taken from Ottobah Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787):

I was early snatched away from my native country, with about eighteen or twenty more boys and girls, as we were playing in a field. We lived but a few days' journey from the coast where we were kidnapped, and consigned to Grenada. Some of us attempted, in vain, to run away, but pistols and cutlasses were soon introduced, threatening, that if we offered to stir, we should all lie dead on the spot.

This shows that the African taken from his home was forced to do the work and live where the masters told him to live, otherwise violence was to follow.

There was virtually no social mobility for African Americans until slavery ended in 1865. Even then racism still kept Black people from moving into better social conditions. During the period of slavery, slaves received almost no education in order to keep them form attempting to escape. Furthermore, as slaves their jobs were determined by their master and the child of a slave had no option but to become a slave as well, so not much changed from generation to generation. However, after the 1960s civil rights movement African Americans have more ability to get better levels of education, jobs, and standards of living, but for the first Black immigrants up until recently, this luxury has been almost non-existent.

The occupations of the Africans from West is briefly outlined in the website The Beginning of Slavery, where it states:

The peoples inhabiting those African nations were known for their skills in agriculture, farming, and mining. The Africans of Ghana were well known for smelting iron ore, and the Benins were famous for their cast bronze art works. African tribal wars produced captives which became a bartering resource in the European slave market. Other slaves were kidnapped by white and black hunters. The main sources of barter used by the Europeans to secure African slaves were glass beads, whiskey, ivory, and guns.

From this passage it can be assumed that many of the slaves that came to America were already slaves in Africa. These people did a lot of work in agriculture, and that would end up being what they did in America as slaves. Agriculture was important because sugar, coffee, and cotton was big products produced in America and the slaves generally worked in those areas.

Not