Ethnic Groups and Discrimination

The ethnic group that I identify most with is African American. African Americans immigrated to the United Sates. Immigration, according to our course material is defined as “Coming into a new country as a permanent resident”. Unlike many other ethnic groups, African Americans were not given a choice to come to the United States. They were brought over as slaves by way of Dutch ships carrying 20 slaves from the Caribbean, to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The enslavement of Africans actually began in the early 1500s, with slaves arriving on Caribbean shores in the hands of Portuguese and Spanish slave traders. (Ciment, 2001) The 20 slaves were quickly sold off to local tobacco farmers, although it is unclear whether their states remarried as slaves or if they were indentured servants. The process of slavery of the African Americans actually began at the trading posts on the west coast of Africa. African Kings and merchants cooperated and traded slaves for European goods, this was known as the first stage of the triangular trade. The long trip across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, was called the middle passage of the triangular trade. The last stage occurred after the slaves were brought to America, and were sold into slavery in exchange for goods, i.e. cotton, tobacco and sugar. By the 1700s, the population of enslaved Africans had ballooned to about 20,000(ibid). They were shipped to the United States until, 1807, when the U.S banned the slave trade. The slaves were treated harshly by their owners. They had to work in all weather conditions; they were beaten and whipped. Slavery of African Americans continued for years. It was September 22, 1862, Lincoln issued the historic Emancipation Proclamation declaring all slaves in confederate held territories forever free as of January 1, 1863 (Foner 2005).
African Americans