African Immigration Dbq Essay

New societies, people, and communities all have originated from the acts of migration. The choosing of a new life have created different foundations and sever their ties in the search of opportunities. After all, America has been identified as the chase of the American Dream, otherwise known as the nation of immigrants. According to its history, not all journeys have held the easiest routes in regards to freedom. As it first began with the Native Americans and their fight for freedom from the Spanish it also progressed within African descent. While African Americans faced massive movements that have shaped and reshaped their lives into what they are today, it all initiated with the Middle Passage.

Given in Document A, African Immigration to

Colonial America, a forced migration was utilized as an involuntarily and a controlled voyage of the enslavement of African Americans across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.

None who have which had knowledge of where they were going or what awaited. As many have never seen the sea before or let alone be on a ship, that was only the beginning of their excursion. On the first leg of their three-part quest also known as the triangular trade, a three-legged route that began and ended in Europe. There were three migrations that the African Americans experienced: the transatlantic slave trade which carried black people to the Americas. A second forced migration from Africa called the internal slave trade in which transported them from the Atlantic coast to the interior of the American South. The third migration who which initiated largely, but not always by black Americans to which carried black people from the rural South to the urban North. The shipboard journey consisted of being shackled in chains together below the decks of the ship. They couldn’t get to a toilet so most laid in their own filth. These conditions encouraged diseases such as bloody flux (a serious stomach bug) and fever. The

voyage took about six to eight weeks but in case of the bad weather, placement increased more time into its arrival. The three migrations were all important considering their ship experience, however, the second held the most significance. No matter their sex, age, and nationality, Africans were shipped to the New World to undergo the traumatic stages of their enslavement in results of forced labor, poor treatment and lack of liberty. The slave trade continued, in the South, it became a longer course for its servitude and expansion of workforce in plantations. Owners acknowledged the value of labor and how the gaining in wealth had become an advantage. In consequence, the demand for more slaves enlarged.
In the narrative from Document B, Olaudah Equiano recalls the Middle Passage (1789), Olaudah Equiano, gives an interesting autobiography of which tells a tale of his brutal passage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

He was a man who believed to be blessed from all events of his life and for which he hopes for his work to serve the purpose in helping his enslaved brethren. He wished to portrait a positive image on Ebobe people to whom he claims he descended from. The narrative provided a thorough indictment of the slave trade and to thereby compel the British government to abolish it. Although Equiano makes his point in relation to the events of his life by inciting consciences and raising the question to England on its commitment towards democracy, liberty, and equality. He then concludes with a striking rhetorical assault against slavery by stating that it is incompatible with virtue, morality and biblical

teachings.
Also in Slaves Endure the Middle Passage (Document C) highlights a different perspective from a source describing their journey towards the involvement of the slave trade other than being in it. Document C is a historical narrative from various (personal) accounts of sympathetic to indifferent narrators that hold related testimonies of the horrifying events and conditions of the extreme cruelty. It described life on the ship, setting the scene by telling the dangers the crew and whites faced in their zeal to collect slaves off of the coast of West Africa. From the dissimilar viewpoints of both Document B & C, Document C illustrates a balance of reports in which gives information of American merchants played a prominent role while in Document B gives the struggles of the captivity faced by African Americans. These Documents serve as reliable sources given their historical events from its context. Although B is found to be more credible in terms of helping answer what the Middle Passage was like because the slaves were most affected not only from the shipment but within its circumstances as well.
The Middle Passage was a symbolic stage to which moved into something greater throughout its path. Document B and C contained biases such as the unlike opinions of the sources but can be useful in factoring them into a conclusion on understanding from both sides of the stories what the transition was like. It can also raise answers or questions on the drawing of how each influenced each other. That being said, Document B could be found most useful to Document A because it gives a sense of what also came after the voyage leading to the harsh lives of African Americans. Given from these three Documents, the Middle Passage was the second passage of the three passages that carried the peregrination of the enslavement of African Americans. It was a fundamental and crucial period to which began life for African Americans in the New World. This phase is what most likely created the idea of “blackness” and for which has proven to be the most defining element of the African Diaspora.