The History of African Americans in America

African Americans have faced a lot of challenges and struggles in the past, more than just what other people actually know about. They have been beaten, scorned, and embarrassed for centuries unable to do anything but what they were told. Slavery in the United States first began in Virginia, in 1619, when African slaves were brought to the North American colony of Jamestown (Slavery in America - Black History - History.com, 2009). A Dutch ship had brought 20 Africans ashore to the British colonies which lead to slavery spreading throughout the American colonies. Slavery was also practiced throughout the 17th and 18th centuries throughout the American colonies (Mason, 2006). As a result of that the African continent was deprived of some of its healthiest women and men. African-American slaves helped build the economic foundations of the new nation as well during that time. Early in the 17th century European settlers turned to African slaves for a plentiful labor because they were cheaper. Late in the 18th century the land that people owned and used to grow tobacco had soon exhausted the land and caused the South to face an economic crisis. During the time of the crisis that the South was experiencing, the textile industry in England was leading to a huge demand for American cotton (Mason, 2006). American cotton was a southern crop whose production became limited because of the difficulty of removing the seeds from the raw cotton fibers by hand. In 1793, a young Yankee school-teacher whose name was Eli Whitney, invented the cotton gin and it was used to solidify the central importance that slavery had to the economy of the South (Hammond, 2012). Whitney’s device was shortly afterwards copied all over within only a few years. This th...

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...ner ain't got nothing more to say. (Sojourner p.977)

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History.com Staff (2009). Slavery in America - Black History - HISTORY.com. Retrieved February 13, 2014, from http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/slavery

Mason, M. (2006). Slavery, Servitude, and British Representations of Colonial North America. Southern Quarterly, 43(4), 109-125.