AFRO- AMERICANS
First slaves in America
1619, Virginia, (Point Comfort- today’s Hampton)
- 2 English private ships, the White Lion ans the
Treasurer, intercepted and seized Spanish ship
- 20-30 enslaved Aficans
-“20. and odd Negroes” John Rolfe
- were traded in exchange for supplies
A Turning Point, Not a Beginning!!! America's
History of Slavery Began Long Before Jamestown
The arrival of the first captives to the Jamestown Colony,
in 1619, is often seen as the beginning of slavery in
America—but enslaved Africans arrived in North America
as early as the 1500s (Spanish, Portugese colonies).
Engraving shows the arrival of a ship with a group
of Africans for sale in Virginia in 1619
Life in northern vs. southern
states
smaller farms, fields of tabacco,
cooler climate rice and cotton,
abolitionists, little industry
many states ¾ of world’s
abolished cotton
slavery, illegal 1/3 of population:
to bring new slaves
slaves into US
Life in northern vs. southern
states
South: hard work, punishments, couldn’t
own property, economic investment;
Bible: black colour assocciated with evil,
darkness, savages, needs white rule;
slave codes; dehumanization
Women: slaves’ children: chattel slavery,
Life in northern vs. southern
states
Sojourner Truth:
And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as
much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash
as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen
children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I
cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard
me! And ain't I a woman?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't
have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a
woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did
your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had
nothing to do with Him.
Harriet Tubman
’’Underground Railroad’’, ’’conductors”
slave-Maryland, escaped, 19 trips, over
300 people
A spy?
Harriet Tubman
Civil War (1861-1865)
Reasons: growing conflict between N and
S, illegal to bring new slaves into US,
new territories
The central cause of the war was the
status of slavery, Abraham Lincoln
between the Union (states that remained
loyal to the federal government, or "the
North") and the Confederacy (states that
voted to secede from US, or "the South”}
Civil War (1861-1865)
The bloodiest in US history, took 680 000-800 000
people
N: more men, material sources
The Emancipation Proclamation- changed the
purpose of the war
The end of slavery, 13 amendment to the
Constitution ‚
’’Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United
States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
segregation-desegregation
’’ to be free, hovewer, does not make him a
citizen or entitle him to social or political equality
with the white man” (the assembly of Mississippi)
Black Codes
Desegragation:14th amendment gave black full
rights of citizenship (the right to vote)
Ku Klux Klan
Segregation: Plessy & Ferguson, enforced on
trains, in parks, schools, restaurants, theaters,
cemeteries; education, medical care, employment
Ku Klux Klan
Civil Rights Movement
‚’50,’60
nonviolent resistance and civil
disobedience
1954 Brown v. Board of Education
1955- Rosa Parks refused to move to the
back of the bus in Alabama, Montgomery
bus boycott
Martin Luther King Jr.- baptist pastor, 1963
”I have a dream”, assassinated in 1968
Over 70 000 people in demostrations,
police brutality
1964 Civil Rights Act
John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, ban
discrimination in schools, hospitals,
employment, means of transport, private
business (e.g. hotels, restaurants)
Also prohibited discrimination on the
basis of sex, religion, national origin
CRM still ”fighting”
Are Afro-Americans still discriminated??
Are Afro-Americans still discriminated??
Are Afro-Americans still discriminated??
The following 2013 data comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Group Infant mortality
Black 11 in 1,000
White and Latinx 5 in 1,000
Asian or Pacific Islander 4 in 1,000
Are Afro-Americans still discriminated??
George Floyd, 2020, murdered by a
police officer, Minnesota
”Black Lives Matter”
Protests (worldwide) mostly peaceful;
many escalated to riots
14 000 arrested, 25 died