African American

African American

How did the African Americans enter the US: why did they leave their homeland? What attracted them to come to United States?

The Africans were initially introduced to the Northern Americas during the 1600s. They were introduced initially as servants who later turned into slaves. Countries which became America and Canada later in the years, legally enslaved and important Africans for centuries, specifically roughly 400 years in America and 200 in Canada. During the late 1700's the British Empire started abolishing slavery, little by little all of the countries of the world followed the suit.

The life of the African Americans in the States was influenced through both free and forced migrations. The transatlantic slave trade was forced migration which transported the black people from Africa to America. There was another 'forced' migration; the second one was an internal slave trade where the black people were carried from the coast of the Atlantic Ocean to the South American Interior. The third big migration was started by the Black American themselves. They transported their people from the South which was a rural county to the North, which was urbanized. The 'free' Black people of the South were living in dreadful conditions due to the boll weevil destroying most of the agriculture. They heard tell of the opportunities of work and wages available for grabs in the North, thus the migration. At the finishing of the 20th Century and the start of the 21st, there has been yet another migration of the Black people, on a global scale, as all Black people head towards the United States of America (Berlin, 2012).

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Did they travel alone or as families? Were they connected to a family or friendship network that helped them relocate? Was racial or ethnic segregation a factor in choosing where to settle?

The Black people were initially transported on the basis of both families and individuals. The white oppressors were constantly on the lookout for any Black people they could take back and sell in the slave market. All of the slaves were taken and then sold to different people. Some of them bought whole families, while majority of them bought individual Black people. They formed families or friendship ties with the Blacks who already existed in the house hold of their new owners. Later during the third migration, which they did of their own accord, the Black people usually travelled alone, of good working age, while those who had families travelled with their families.

In the modern times, settling down or relocating is almost never done on solo basis that is the decision and work of a single individual. Majority of the times, there are friends or relatives who have already established a household or a living in the new place and are eager or ready to support the new coming person. In case of the black people, those people originating from different parts of the world have friends or relatives already living in the United States, but not all ...