African American Movement Research Paper

The history of African- Americans is the part of the history of America which focuses on the history of particular ethnic group in the United States of America.

The term African- American was created and made popular in 1960s by Malcolm X, one of the leaders of African- American Movements in the United States of America.

The history of the Negro nation has its beginning in the 17th century, when the first black people came to the American colonies as slaves. They were brought to Virginia in 1619 by a Dutch trader, but only a few thousand of African- Americans were imported for the rest of the 17th century. After the transportation of slaves, they were sold in most colonies. The term slavery was not popular and known in the colonies. Because

Firstly, there was a need for labour, because there were very few Indians in number. The number changed because of diseases brought by Europeans to the New World. It was easier to keep black slaves, because white indentured people could be kept only for few years and mostly they ran off, before indenture ended. Furthermore, the Negro people could be brought from Africa to the New World by thousands. If they tried to run away, they could be found very quickly. It was all because of the colour of the skin. As it is written above, the labour supply increased with each new generation. The other reason was the alterity of the African- American people. They were different because of their appearance and languages. Even though many African- Americans came from civilized lands, they were still treated as

They made speeches and they tried to convince people that slavery is not a normal thing. For instance, Frederick Douglass in his speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” tried to prove that white people and the black nation are equal. He gave examples that among African- Americans, people created their own societies, had normal jobs, they started their families, brought up children and they have their own language. They used newspapers and books as well. They wanted to show their ideas to the northern states. They also flooded the South with leaflets. Furthermore, they created an organization which helped black people to escape to the North or to Canada. Slaves who escaped went to the Underground Railroad, hid on the “stations” and then, they waited for a “conductor”, who led them to the next station. In this way of helping the slaves, the most famous person was Harriet Tubman, who was a slave as well. She helped more than three hundred black people to reach the safe places. Thanks to the Underground Railroad, about 75,000 slaves escaped before the Civil War began. However, in the North most people were opposed to the extreme abolitionists. Northerners thought that extremists’ made a peaceful end of the slavery impossible. For example, in Boston in 1835, William Lloyd Garrison almost hanged. Elijah Lovejoy was attacked and killed, Frederick Douglass had to