Chapter Seventeen African Americans

1. Chapter SeventeenAfrican Americans 8th Grade Social Studies U.S. Current Issues

2. Chapter Seventeen Definitions • Busing “New World” • De facto segregation • Desegregate • Integration • Jim Crow laws • Affirmative action • White flight

3. According to most sources, from 1790 to 1860, it is estimated that about four million Africans came to the United States with the slave trade.

4. Slave Voyage • The Africans realized that they were being sent far away from home, and often there was violence even before the ship set sail. However, most of these uprisings were easily put down. Others jumped overboard and plunged from the ship into the sea, choosing to either drown or be devoured by blood-thirsty sharks rather than be taken from their homeland.

5. Slave Voyage (cont.) • Once aboard the ships the Africans would be packed below deck.. Captains of slave ships were known as either "loose packers" or "tight packers", depending upon how many slaves they crammed into the space they had. Most ships, especially those of the later 18th century, were "tight packers", carrying a huge quantity of slaves who were often forced to lie in spaces smaller than that of a grave, or in some cases stacked spoon-fashion on top of one another.

6. Slave Voyage • Regardless, life for a slave in the "tween decks", as they were called, was extremely uncomfortable. In addition to extreme overcrowding, there was also inadequate ventilation, not to mention little or no sanitation. Although some captains would have their crew periodically clean the "tween decks" with hot vinegar, most chose rather to leave them alone, resulting in their atrociously unclean condition. In addition to disease and suffocation below deck, it would not be uncommon to find the body of a slave completely covered by lice.

7. Slave Voyage • Eventually, after the arduous 3,700 mile voyage, the slave ship would reach North America . In order to strengthen them before sale, the slaves were normally fed better in the days directly before their arrival in the new world, however their suffering was far from over. Before they could be sold, the slaves would be oiled to make their skin shiny and any imperfections, such as scars from whippings, would be filled in with hot tar in order to improve their appearance and get the best market price.

8. Slave Voyage • Most slave ships would not be allowed to dock in the ports which they came to, due to their horrible stench and the fear of the spread of any diseases which had been spread throughout the ship. Therefore, the slavers would drop anchor a few miles off shore and carry the slaves to land in smaller boats which had been stored aboard the ship. The slaves would then be sold at auction and would live through the rest of their lives in wicked involuntary servitude.

9. Slave Voyage • Many of the Africans taken aboard the slave ships and transported along the Middle Passage did not live to see the shores of North America . A great many expired during the voyage as a result of the extreme overcrowding and deplorable conditions present aboard the vessel. Many suffocated or succumbed to dysentery while in the hold.

10. Discease on Board • Many died along the voyage due to epidemics of disease, which spread like wildfire in the tightly packed 'tween decks. On board the slave ships, there were numerous outbreaks of the dreaded smallpox, as well as ophthalmia, a highly contagious disease which quickly resulted in complete blindness. These terrible ailments could rapidly afflict an entire cargo of slaves, as well as the crew, and wipe out entire ships in a matter of days.

11. Discease on Board • A few of the Africans were driven insane by the claustrophobic misery they experienced while on the ships. Those who had gone mad were often brought up on deck, at which time they were either flogged or clubbed to death and then thrown overboard. Those suffering from smallpox or ophthalmia were not quite so fortunate. Anyone showing even the slightest sign of either of these diseases was thrown overboard alive. This was done by the captain to prevent at all costs an epidemic aboard the ship.

12. Inhumane Conditions • Yet the worst time of the Middle Passage came for the slaves when the ship was met with periods of bad weather. During storms the Africans were forced to remain below deck all day and night. The holds were dark, filthy, slimy, and they stank of death. The "tween decks" were often full not only with slaves, both living and dead, but also with blood, vomit, urine, and human waste. Also during periods of inclement weather the slaves were not fed as usual. They were often forced to scrounge for small crumbs and pieces of spoiled food and drink from stagnant puddles of extremely impure water.

13. Slave Boats

14. Slave Voyage

15. Slave Auction

16. Slaves in Chains

17. Slave Auction

18. Slave Auction

19. Indentured Servants & Slavery • 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.

20. Indentured Servants • An Indentured Servant is a laborer under contract to work for an employer for a specific amount of time, usually seven to eight years, to pay off a passage to a new country or home. Typically the employers provided little if any monetary pay, but were responsible for accommodation, food, other essentials, and training.

21. Slavery • The rising demand for sugar, coffee, cotton, and tobacco created a greater demand for slaves by other slave trading countries. • The economy of the country was enhanced by the labor afforded by slavery. • Slaves were expensive and were used by rich farmers and plantation owners with commercial export-oriented operations on the best lands.

22. These slaves had no rights – they were considered property. The law gave masters total power over slaves, including the right to kill them.

23. Jim Crow Laws • The Jim Crow Laws were state and local laws enacted in the Southern and border states of the United States and enforced between 1876 and 1965. They mandated "separate but equal" status for African Americans. In reality, this led to treatment and accommodations that were almost always inferior to those provided to white Americans. Although it was required that the facilities provided were equal they were not.

24. Slave Auction

25. Slave Auction Process • http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/slaveauction.htm

26. Life on the Plantation • Work on these plantations was never-ending for slaves.  Adult male slaves were primarily relied on to tend the fields, pastures, and gardens.  Overseers on horseback equipped with whips monitored slaves, always threatening to punish "stragglers" with a flogging.  Plantation owners also exploited the work of skilled slaves, such as blacksmiths and carpenters, for their own ends.  Lastly, female slaves and young children usually served as domestics, tending to the master's family as cooks, servants, and housemaids, and were often starved, whipped, and even raped.

27. Cotton Fields

28. Most African Americans in our country at this time remained slaves until the end of the Civil War in 1865.

29. http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~el6/presentations/pres_c1_africanhttp://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~el6/presentations/pres_c1_african _americans_ws02_03/faces_of_slavery_transport_auctions.htm

30. Civil Rights May 17, 1954 • The Supreme Court rules on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional. The ruling paves the way for large-scale desegregation. The decision overturns the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson ruling that sanctioned "separate but equal" segregation of the races, ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." It is a victory for NAACP attorney Thurgood Marshall, who will later return to the Supreme Court as the nation's first black justice.

31. Civil Rights Movement • Aug. 1954 • Fourteen-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is visiting family in Mississippi when he is kidnapped, brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in the Tallahatchie River for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two white men, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, are arrested for the murder and acquitted by an all-white jury. They later boast about committing the murder in a Look magazine interview.

32. Rosa Parks • Montgomery, Ala.) NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat at the front of the "colored section" of a bus to a white passenger, defying a southern custom of the time. In response to her arrest the Montgomery black community launches a bus boycott, which will last for more than a year, until the buses are desegregated Dec. 21, 1956. As newly elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is instrumental in leading the boycott.

33. Rosa Parks

34. Civil Rights Movement • Oct. 1 , 1962 • James Meredith becomes the first black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi. Violence and riots surrounding the incident cause President Kennedy to send 5,000 federal troops. • Aug. 28 • (Washington, D.C.) About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

35. July 2nd, 1964 • President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination of all kinds based on race, color, religion, or national origin. The law also provides the federal government with the powers to enforce desegregation.

36. April 4, 1968 • Memphis, Tenn.) Martin Luther King, at age 39, is shot as he stands on the balcony outside his hotel room. Escaped convict and committed racist James Earl Ray is convicted of the crime.

37. 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution • The 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on July 28, 1868, and granted citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States,” which included former slaves recently freed. In addition, it forbids states from denying any person "life, liberty or property, without due process of law" or to "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws.” By directly mentioning the role of the states, the 14th Amendment greatly expanded the protection of civil rights to all Americans and is cited in more litigation than any other amendment.

38. 15th Amendment • The 15th Amendment to the Constitution granted African American men the right to vote by declaring that the "right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Although ratified on February 3, 1870, the promise of the 15th Amendment would not be fully realized for almost a century. Through the use of poll taxes, literacy tests and other means, Southern states were able to effectively disenfranchise African Americans.

39. African American Population • As of April 11th, 2007, there are about 301, 586,000 people living in the United States. • In 2005, there were about 39 million African Americans in the United States

40. African American Population