Popular African American Web Sites Courtesy of Return To Glory. African Americans Wikipedia. African Americans also referred to as Black Americans or Afro Americans3 are an ethnic group of Americans with total or partial ancestry from any of the black racial groups of Africa. This term may also be used to include only those individuals who are descended from enslaved Africans. As a compound adjective, the term is usually hyphenated as African American. Black and African Americans constitute the third largest racial and ethnic group in the United States after White Americans and Hispanic and Latino Americans. Most African Americans are descendants of enslaved peoples within the boundaries of the present United States. African American Health Programs' title='African American Health Programs' />On average, African Americans are of WestCentral African and European descent, and some also have Native American ancestry. According to US Census Bureau data, African immigrants generally do not self identify as African American. The overwhelming majority of African immigrants identify instead with their own respective ethnicities 9. Immigrants from some Caribbean, Central American and South American nations and their descendants may or may not also self identify with the term. African American history starts in the 1. West Africa forcibly taken as slaves to Spanish America, and in the 1. West African slaves taken to English colonies in North America. After the founding of the United States, black people continued to be enslaved, and the last four million black slaves were only liberated after the Civil War in 1. Due to notions of white supremacy, they were treated as second class citizens. The Naturalization Act of 1. U. S. citizenship to whites only, and only white men of property could vote. These circumstances were changed by Reconstruction, development of the black community, participation in the great military conflicts of the United States, the elimination of racial segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement which sought political and social freedom. In 2. 00. 8, Barack Obama became the first African American to be elected President of the United States. History. Colonial era. African American Health Programs' title='African American Health Programs' />The first African slaves arrived via Santo Domingo to the San Miguel de Gualdape colony most likely located in the Winyah Bay area of present day South Carolina, founded by Spanish explorer Lucas Vzquez de Aylln in 1. The ill fated colony was almost immediately disrupted by a fight over leadership, during which the slaves revolted and fled the colony to seek refuge among local Native Americans. De Aylln and many of the colonists died shortly afterwards of an epidemic and the colony was abandoned. Millions of African Americans live in communities that lack access to good jobs and good schools and suffer from high crime rates. African American adults are about. Year Events Subject Country State Era 1901 The last African American congressman elected in the 19th Century, George H. White, Republican of North Carolina, leaves. I appreciated reading this article. My son has many AfricanAmerican friends from his playing basketball at an inner city high school, and I have been called mom. Atlantic slave trade AfricanAmerican history Slavery in the United States History in agriculture AfricanAmerican business history AfricanAmerican military history. The settlers and the slaves who had not escaped returned to Haiti, whence they had come. The first recorded Africans in British North America including most of the future United States were 2. Jamestown, Virginia via Cape Comfort in August 1. As English settlers died from harsh conditions, more and more Africans were brought to work as laborers. Slaves processing tobacco in 1. Virginia. Typically, young men or women would sign a contract of indenture in exchange for transportation to the New World. The landowner received 5. An indentured servant who could be white or black would work for several years usually four to seven without wages. The status of indentured servants in early Virginia and Maryland was similar to slavery. Servants could be bought, sold, or leased and they could be physically beaten for disobedience or running away. Unlike slaves, they were freed after their term of service expired or was bought out, their children did not inherit their status, and on their release from contract they received a years provision of corn, double apparel, tools necessary, and a small cash payment called freedom dues. Africans could legally raise crops and cattle to purchase their freedom. They raised families, married other Africans and sometimes intermarried with Native Americans or English settlers. The First Slave Auction at New Amsterdam in 1. Howard Pyle. By the 1. African families owned farms around Jamestown and some became wealthy by colonial standards and purchased indentured servants of their own. In 1. 64. 0, the Virginia General Court recorded the earliest documentation of lifetime slavery when they sentenced John Punch, a Negro, to lifetime servitude under his master Hugh Gwyn for running away. One of Dutch African arrivals, Anthony Johnson, would later own one of the first black slaves, John Casor, resulting from the court ruling of a civil case. The popular conception of a race based slave system did not fully develop until the 1. Located in Lynchburg Virginia, the mission of the Legacy Museum of African American History is to collect, preserve and store historical artifacts, documents and. Of the nearly 34 million people who identify themselves as African American, 22 live in poverty. These individuals are at particular risk for mental health illness. The Dutch West India Company introduced slavery in 1. New Amsterdam present day New York City. All the colonys slaves, however, were freed upon its surrender to the British. Reproduction of a handbill advertising a slave auction in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1. Massachusetts was the first British colony to legally recognize slavery in 1. In 1. 66. 2 Virginia passed a law that children of enslaved women who were of African descent and thus foreigners took the status of the mother, rather than that of the father, as under English common law. This principle was called partus sequitur ventrum. By an act of 1. 69. African descent who remained in the colony. In 1. 67. 0 the colonial assembly passed a law prohibiting free and baptized negroes and Indians from purchasing Christians in this act meaning English or European whites but allowing them to buy people of their owne nation. The earliest African American congregations and churches were organized before 1. Great Awakening. By 1. Africans made up 2. American colonies, which made them the second largest ethnic group after the English. From the American Revolution to the Civil War. During the 1. 77. Africans, both enslaved and free, helped rebellious English colonists secure American independence by defeating the British in the American Revolution. Africans and Englishmen fought side by side and were fully integrated. Blacks played a role in both sides in the American Revolution. Activists in the Patriot cause included James Armistead, Prince Whipple and Oliver Cromwell. New Game Codes Activation Code more. Slavery had been tacitly enshrined in the U. S. Constitution through provisions such as Article I, Section 2, Clause 3, commonly known as the 35 compromise. Slavery, which by then meant almost exclusively African Americans, was the most important political issue in the antebellum United States, leading to one crisis after another. Among these were the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1. Fugitive Slave Act, and the Dred Scott decision. Prior to the Civil War, eight serving presidents owned slaves, a practice protected by the U. S. Constitution. 3. By 1. 86. 0, there were 3. U. S. due to the Atlantic slave trade, and another 4. African Americans lived free with legislated limits3. With legislated limits imposed upon them in addition to unconquerable prejudice from whites according to Henry Clay,4. Hp Deskjet 3400 Series Printer Software For Win Vista. U. S. for Liberia in Africa. Liberia began as a settlement of the American Colonization Society ACS in 1. ACS believing blacks would face better chances for freedom and equality in Africa. The slaves not only constituted a large investment, they produced Americas most valuable product and export cotton. They not only helped build the U. S. Capitol, they built the White House and other District of Columbia buildings. Washington was a slave trading center. Similar building projects existed in slaveholding states.