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Chapter 5

Shaping A Nation:

The African American Experience

The African American experience has shaped the U. S. in so many ways. From being enslaved to creating some of the worlds most commonly used machinery, African Americans have truly made their mark on America. The first documented arrival of African Americans to the the North American Colonies dates back as far as 1619 (Boles,1984). Ripped from their native land, families and given no choice in their final destination, African Americans were forced into slavery by the Europeans settlers. After a few years slavery had become a full scale business complete with trade, barter and profit. African Americans were working in the production of various crops such as tobacco and cotton. Northern states were no longer considered slave states toward the early 1800’s (Morgan,2003).

After years of debating and not being able to reach a mutual agreement on the issue of slavery the Civil War had begun. The Civil War was known as the war between the North and the South. The U.S. Union or “North” and several southern slave states fought because of the issue of slavery, especially the extension of slavery into the western territories. This war produced over 600,000 casualties, but their deaths were not in vain. With the North pulling out a victory over the South, better known as the “Confederacy”, and also help of the Emancipation Proclamation and ratification of the 13th Amendment, slavery was abolished and civil rights were guaranteed to all who were freed.

In 1865, when the war came to an end, African Americans believed that they had finally stepped out of the shadows, of which they labored in for so long, and joined the ranks of society as equals. However, this was state of euphoria was short lived once segregation came into play around the 1900’s. Laws were created to treat African Americans like second class citizens. These laws, called Jim Crow Laws, were laws that mandated racial segregation in all public...