Keegan Piva Chris Case History 2200 05/04/2013 The African American Journey Over the centuries since

the New World has been founded many different nationalities have come here for a new beginning. Most of these groups of people have come here to get away from whatever they were dealing with in their home country. A great deal of the time they were trying to escape political oppression but sometimes it was dealing with natural disasters or just a downturn in the economy. This was usually a family choice that they made and hopefully they would come to the New World to get a fresh start. This was not the case for a few different groups of people. The Native Americans were already here in the United States and had to deal with the huge influx of immigrants and the problems that they brought with. They were often times marginalized and pushed out of the way so white settlers could have their choice of land. Another group that didnt have the choice of coming to America was Africans. They had the toughest time being accepted and were marginalized the most when coming to the United States. The African Americans that came to America did not come because they wanted to they came because they were forced too. This led to centuries of being marginalized and hated upon because they were always seen as an inferior race. The African Americans first came to America as indentured servants and would work for their owner for a certain time and then be freed. This only happened for a relatively short period of time in the United States. By the second half of the 1600s, however, white colonial landowners began to see slavery as a solution to their

economic woes (Everyculture: African Americans: The First Africans in America). When this began to happen is when the marginalization of Africans in America really began. Almost all of the first Africans to be brought to America were forced here. They really had no clue why they were being forced to come to another country. Most of these Africans were brought here to help with labor costs for the southern land owners. The African Americans were forced to work in the fields mainly in the south, sometimes north, for free and in bad conditions. Since the second half of the 1600s was when the marginalization of black people really began. The African Americans migration to America was not a pleasant experience at all. The English realized that there was a huge demand for slaves in America and began the Royal African Company. Perhaps 20 million slaves were taken from Africa to the Western Hemisphere between 1600 and 1800. As many as 40 percent died in transit (Olson and Beal pg96). In this two decade period the slave trade went from something that was very casual into a very high demand trading operation. Once the English realized that there was a profit to be made in the slave trade business, they started packing Africans onto ships in very poor conditions. This is why possibly forty percent of them died in the transit to America. Overall the African migration to America was not something that was a choice by the Africans that came here. It was the choice of the wealthy Englishmen and also the white population in America. This is how the slave trade was supplied and then from the time the African people hit the soil of America is when the marginalization began. Ever since slavery started in America in the late sixteen hundreds is when the white population began to marginalize the blacks. Once the slaves went from indentured servants to slaves the people of America began to evolve the Black code. General Black Code: Slaves and their children are property of their masters for life (Packet pg10). This was really the beginning

of the marginalization of Africans in America. This Black Code varied from colony to colony but had a general meaning like the quote above. The African slaves were marginalized at this point and would continue for centuries because they were viewed as property and not human beings. This lead to the African Americans being beaten if they ran away or treated more like animals on the plantation rather than humans. This marginalization was mainly done in the south and that is where the majority of the African population lived. The Northern colonies for the most part opposed slavery and this would eventually lead to how the African slaves were freed. The Africans that came to America had a long ways to go before they would get any type of rights or freedoms and that really did not start happening until the late nineteenth century. The fight for the freedom of slaves was a long fought battle. The slaves in the south really could not do much to fight against it so they had to rely mainly on the people in the Northern half of the United States. It wasnt until the mid-1800s that the slaves of America started to see the hope of having more freedoms and eventually be freed. In 1865 to 1870, three amendments were passed that improved the rights of slaves. The main two were the 13th amendment which abolished slavery and the 15th amendment which granted the Blacks the right to vote. Of course the Southerners had their ways of keeping the blacks as the lower class and continuing to marginalize them. Eventually the South would have to give up on this hatred towards the blacks because the Northerners and the United States Congress passed laws that would grant the African Americans the rights that they deserved to have. This was not a short process by any means but in the middle of the 20th century a majority of the desegregation acts were passed and that allowed for African citizens to have the freedoms which everyone else in the United States had when they came here.

This whole process of allowing slavery to happen and then eventually abolishing it has definitely helped shape America into the country it is today. Even though this slavery process was a horrible thing that happened in the United States it has led to more rights for all of the citizens of the United States. America has become a place where through the right steps of immigration anyone can have the rights that they deserve. This has showed how a country can grow from such a judging state of other races and skin colors into a country where everyone has the freedoms they deserve. Although it took centuries and generations of African Americans to see this whole process through the United States now has gone away with all of the slavery problems. Overall the African Americans in the United States from the beginning of when the New World was founded has by far had the most difficult time being accepted and have dealt with the most marginalization. The African Americans never really had a chance to keep their cultural identity and had to give up everything they stood for since day one of coming to this country. They were completely forced into coming to America and had no choice in the matter unlike other nationalities that chose to come here for a new beginning and a better life. African Americans were marginalized all of their lives up until recent times. It was only within the last century of the United States history that African Americans got the chance to live their own lives and enjoy the freedoms that they deserve to have. African American people that were forced into coming to the United States were definitely marginalized the most out of any nationality that came here. It took the African Americans a long time to be accepted in everyday life and to have their own freedoms.