Ethnic Groups & Discrimination

The ethnic group in which I identify with is black, my lineage is African. My ethnic group came into the country primarily by way of forced immigration. “The first Africans in America arrived as Indentured Servants via Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. From 1619 to about 1640, Africans could earn their freedom working as laborers and artisans for the European settlers. Africans could become free people and enjoy some of the liberties like other new settlers. By 1640, Maryland became the first colony to institutionalize slavery. In 1641, Massachusetts, in its written legislative Body of Liberties, stated that "bondage was legal" servitude, at that moment changing the conditions of the African workers - they became chattel slaves who could be bought and solely owned by their masters.” (www.liu.edu) It is within most ethnic groups that one might find immigration into another area, or country, as a means of escape from persecution, gaining a better life, and many other reasons, this is not so in the history of African Americans. The slave trade took place by way of the Middle Passage which is explained as:
The Middle Passage has been defined in several ways. Some authors refer to these routes as the "triangle trade" or "circuit trade," "three cornered," "round about," and "transatlantic trade" routes. The typical voyage for slaves taken by the British went south down the coast of Africa into the area adjacent to the Gulf of Guinea. These English slavers brought cargoes of rum, brandy, glass, cloths, beads, guns, and other appealing goods from Europe. They bargained with African traders for their tribal captives. Some slavers entered the shores and kidnapped the unsuspecting natives and took them aboard their slave ships or kept them in waiting areas near the shore called "barracoons" or slave barracks.” (www.liu.edu)
When enough slaves were aboard for shipping, the voyage of middle passage continued from Africa on the slave ships going across the Atlantic Ocean with a... [continues]

Read full essay