| In the past few decades, African
Americans have begun to uncover a history that was largely discarded,
overlooked, and ignored. After all, history books are written by and
for those in power and reflect their point of view. European
exploration of the New World in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries
revealed both alien peoples thought to be in need of civilizing and
vast tracts of underutilized land. As European traders tapped into the
centuries-old internal African slave trade, they began to realize the
potential benefits of slavery. They could draw on the tropical farming
experience and disease resistance of Africans and work enormous tracts
of land for only the upkeep of the slave population. In the process of
developing the New World, Europeans transported millions of people from
Africa. And as they sought to justify this practice and retain their
advantages, they also created a racial system that would define social
relationships throughout the world. Despite all this, Africans and
African Americans after them would rise above the positions to which
they had been relegated. They created poetry, drama, literature, and
film, they sang the blues, they invented jazz, and they fought for
justice and
equality.
http://www.britannica.com/blackhistory |
|
The African diaspora is the diaspora
created by the movements and cultures of Africans
and their descendants throughout the world, to places such as the Americas,
(including the United States, Canada,
the Caribbean,
Central America, and South
America) Europe and Asia.
Much of the African diaspora is descended from people sold into slavery
during the transatlantic slave trade, with the largest population
living in Brazil
(see Afro-Brazilian).
|
| A Library of
Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture |
| "Slave Market of America" New York: American Anti-Slavery Society, 1836 Broadside Rare Book and Special Collections Division | |
 CCAHS Home |
Student Activities |
