A Historian Writing About African Americans
Abstract
The following is paper about the history of the African American population in the United States, written as a historian writing a chapter about this class of people. The paper includes how the African Americans came to the US as slaves, discussing the Civil War and the events that followed until they were able to get their rights as equal citizens in 1960s. Bibliography lists 4 sources in MLA format.

A Historian Writing About African Americans The African American population has seen a great deal of problematic times in the United States since their arrival in the New World. The first Africans came to the Americas as slaves and this shameful and barbaric act of slavery was to last for the next two hundred and fifty years. The blacks were brought to the US in crowded ships in deplorable conditions, with many of the dying on their way on the ships (Bennett, 12). The slaves were treated worse than animals, as they were beaten and tortured. They were not allowed to interact with the white people except for some special slaves that would be kept inside the houses for indoor work. Most of the slaves would work on the large plantations as farmers for their white slave owners. These slaves would not be paid and they would only get food and shelter. They lived their lives in fear and oppression, as the white people would not allow most of the slaves to get married, have children, learn how to read or write and would implement their own justice on them (Kelley, 45). A large number of blacks were killed for petty crimes during the slavery era. As time went by, many of the more educated and sensible white people started to realize slavery was wrong and inhumane. Such people were called abolitionists and they aimed to abolish slavery and to free the slaves. The debate about whether to keep or free the slaves was mostly