Around 1500, European mariners started bringing the black Africans into America as slaves. This forced movement was the first in American history. However, the slave trade was not unique to Europe or Africa. In the eighth century, Moorish traders traded human beings for goods across the Mediterranean. The majority of West Africans kept slaves. Slaves of West Africans were usually prisoner of war, criminals or even the lowest-ranking people in their caste system.

Capture and sale of Africans to the American slave market was brutal and often fatal. Two out of five West African captives died on the way to the Atlantic coast where they were sold to European slavers. On the slave ships they were chained beneath decks in coffin-shaped racks. A third of them died at sea.

In America, they were auctioned off to owners who wanted them primarily as plantation workers. The owners of slaves were able to punish slaves severely. They could break families up by selling family members off.

Despite the hardships they endured, slaves developed an identity that was strong and distinct. The adults of the plantations all looked after the children. Although they risked separation, slaves often were married and maintained strong family ties. When they were introduced to Christianity They developed their own rituals of worship. You can get more info about travel by browsing black education site.

Spirituals, which was the music used in worship, reflected slave endurance and religious belief. To express their hopes of freedom or commemorate the struggle, slaves would often alter the lyrics of spiritual songs.

In time, African culture enriched much of American theater, music and dance. African songs and dances made their way into Christian hymns and European marches. From the African stringed instrument the banjo came into existence. The blues sound is nothing more than a combination of African and European musical scales. Vaudeville was in part an extension of dance and song forms that were first performed by black street performers.

Abolition and Civil War

In the 17th and 18th centuries some blacks gained freedom, gained the right to own property and gained access to American society. A lot of them moved to the North where slavery, though legal, was no longer a presence. African Americans, both slave and free , also made substantial contributions to the economy and infrastructure by working on canals, roads, and the construction of cities.

Frederick Douglass understood that slavery was not the responsibility of the South. The economics of the industrial North was dependent on agricultural practices of slaves in the South. Douglass demanded his Northern audience to join the cause against Southern slavery. "Are the principles of freedom from political repression and natural justice, as embodied in the Declaration of Independence, extended to us?" he asked. "What to the American slave is your Fourth of July?"

When the Civil War began, many Northern blacks joined the fight for the Union. Many people were shocked by the intensity with which black soldiers fought. Black soldiers were not fighting to restore the Union. They were fighting to liberate their people.

Reconstruction and Reaction

To ensure that slaves were liberated, Northern troops remained South after the defeat of Confederacy. Blacks started their own schools and churches, purchased land, and then elected themselves into the office. In 1870, 22 African Americans were represented in Congress.

The Great Migration North

Many African-Americans moved to the north during the 1890s. Numerous factories were created during the war of 1914. The 1920s saw the introduction of new laws that significantly cut down European immigration. The decrease in immigration led to an industrial workforce shortage in the Northern cities. Southern blacks, who were still ruled by segregation, began moving northward in increasing numbers. Young black men were eager to take non-skilled positions in meat packing factories as well as steel mills on auto assembly lines in Chicago, Omaha, and Detroit.

Black workers have undoubtedly improved their lives when they lived in Northern cities. The indoor plumbing, gas heating and nearby schools were awaiting many new arrivals from the rural South. They also faced discrimination.

But black urban culture flourished. In New Orleans, musicians like Louis Armstrong, Jellyroll Morton, King Oliver and King Oliver introduced their music to the north. In the trendy urban environment of Chicago the jazz pioneers made use of advances in musical instruments and new recording technologies to become celebrities in the Roaring '20s, also known as the Jazz Age.