120-561: African-American history started with the arrival of Africans to North America in the 16th and 17th centuries. Formerly enslaved Spaniards who had been freed by Francis Drake arrived aboard the Golden Hind at New Albion in California in 1579. The European colonization of the Americas , and the resulting Atlantic slave trade , led to a large-scale transportation of enslaved Africans across
240-824: A Massachusetts congressmen and antislavery leader, was assaulted and nearly killed on the House floor by Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Sumner had been delivering an abolitionist speech to Congress when Brooks attacked him. Brooks received praise in the South for his actions while Sumner became a political icon in the North. Sumner later returned to the Senate, where he was a leader of the Radical Republicans in ending slavery and legislating equal rights for freed slaves. List of ethnic groups of Africa The ethnic groups of Africa number in
360-516: A barber from Montgomery. He was a member of the NAACP , which at the time was collecting money to support the defense of the Scottsboro Boys , a group of black men falsely accused of raping two white women. Rosa took numerous jobs, ranging from domestic worker to hospital aide. At her husband's urging, she finished her high school studies in 1933, at a time when fewer than 7% of African Americans had
480-514: A decade". Parks continued her work as an anti-rape activist five years later when she helped organize protests in support of Gertrude Perkins, a black woman who was raped by two white Montgomery police officers. Although never a member of the Communist Party , she attended meetings with her husband. The notorious Scottsboro case had been brought to prominence by the Communist Party. In
600-485: A front-page article in the Montgomery Advertiser helped spread the word. At a church rally that night, those attending agreed unanimously to continue the boycott until they were treated with the level of courtesy they expected, until black drivers were hired, and until seating in the middle of the bus was handled on a first-come basis. The next day, Parks was tried on charges of disorderly conduct and violating
720-627: A heavy demand for cotton for cheap clothing, which caused an enormous demand for slave labor to develop new cotton plantations . There was a 70% increase in the number of slaves in the United States in only 20 years. They were overwhelmingly concentrated on plantations in the Deep South , and moved west as old cotton fields lost their productivity and new lands were purchased. Unlike the Northern States who put more focus into manufacturing and commerce,
840-584: A high-school diploma. In December 1943, Parks became active in the civil rights movement , joined the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, and was elected secretary at a time when this was considered a woman's job. She later said, "I was the only woman there, and they needed a secretary, and I was too timid to say no." She continued as secretary until 1957. She worked for the local NAACP leader Edgar Nixon , even though he maintained that "Women don't need to be nowhere but in
960-594: A housekeeper and seamstress for Clifford and Virginia Durr , a white couple. Politically liberal , the Durrs became her friends. They encouraged—and eventually helped sponsor—Parks in the summer of 1955 to attend the Highlander Folk School , an education center for activism in workers' rights and racial equality in Monteagle, Tennessee . There Parks was mentored by the veteran organizer Septima Clark . In 1945, despite
1080-538: A laboratory school set up by the Alabama State Teachers College for Negroes for secondary education, but dropped out to care for her grandmother and later her mother, after they became ill. Around the turn of the 20th century, the former Confederate states had adopted new constitutions and electoral laws that effectively disenfranchised black voters and, in Alabama, many poor white voters as well. Under
1200-419: A local ordinance. The trial lasted 30 minutes. After being found guilty and fined $ 10, plus $ 4 in court costs (a total of $ 161.11 as of 12 Mar 2024), Parks appealed her conviction and formally challenged the legality of racial segregation. In a 1992 interview with National Public Radio 's Lynn Neary, Parks recalled: I did not want to be mistreated, I did not want to be deprived of a seat that I had paid for. It
1320-502: A number of years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of chattel slavery used in the Caribbean . When servants were freed, they became competition for resources. Additionally, released servants had to be replaced. This—combined with the ambiguous nature of the social status of Black people and the difficulty in using any other group of people as forced servants—led to the subjugation of Black people into slavery. Massachusetts
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#17330857673371440-514: A reaction to discrimination. The churches also served as neighborhood centers where free Black people could celebrate their African heritage without intrusion from white detractors. The church also served as the center of education. Since the church was part of the community and wanted to provide education; it educated the freed and enslaved Black people. Seeking autonomy, some Black people like Richard Allen founded separate Black denominations. The Second Great Awakening (1800–1830s) has been called
1560-586: A row of 4 seats in the " colored " section in favor of a white female passenger who had complained to the driver, once the "white" section was filled. Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her arrest for civil disobedience in violating Alabama segregation laws, and she helped inspire
1680-474: A small number of slaves had joined Christian churches. Free Black people in the North set up their own networks of churches and in the South the slaves sat in the upper galleries of white churches. Central to the growth of community among Blacks was the Black church , usually the first communal institution to be established. The Black church was both an expression of community and unique African-American spirituality, and
1800-533: A small percentage came from Madagascar and East Africa. Only 5% (about 500,000) went to the American colonies. The vast majority went to the West Indies and Brazil, where they died quickly. Demographic conditions were highly favorable in the American colonies, with less disease, more food, some medical care, and lighter work loads than prevailed in the sugar fields. Origins and percentages of African Americans imported to
1920-514: A special status for freedmen , so there were still a dozen "permanent apprentices" into the 19th century. In 1787 Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance and barred slavery from the large Northwest Territory. In 1790, there were more than 59,000 free Black people in the United States. By 1810, that number had risen to 186,446. Most of these were in the North, but Revolutionary sentiments also motivated Southern slaveholders. For 20 years after
2040-567: A steady influx of enslaved people to keep up with the ever-growing demand for agricultural labor among the burgeoning plantation economies. These colonies continued to import enslaved Africans until the trade was outlawed in 1808, save for a temporary lull during the Revolutionary War . South Carolina's Black population remained very high for most of the eighteenth century due to the continued import of enslaved Africans, with Blacks outnumbering whites three-to-one. In contrast, Virginia maintained
2160-509: A white majority despite its significant Black enslaved population. It was said that in the eighteenth century, the colony South Carolina resembled an "extension of West Africa ". Legal importation of enslaved Africans halted in 1808 when the newly formed United States outlawed the slave trade on the earliest date allowed by the Constitution. Despite the ban, small to moderate cargoes of enslaved Africans continued to be illegally brought into
2280-541: A white woman in her family's grocery store, whose killers were tried and acquitted—and I just couldn't go back." Blake said, "Why don't you stand up?" Parks responded, "I don't think I should have to stand up." Blake called the police to arrest Parks. When recalling the incident for Eyes on the Prize , a 1987 public television series on the Civil Rights Movement, Parks said, "When he saw me still sitting, he asked if I
2400-495: A white world. Although Parks's autobiography recounts early memories of the kindness of white strangers, she could not ignore the racism of her society. When the Ku Klux Klan marched down the street in front of their house, Parks recalls her grandfather guarding the front door with a shotgun. The Montgomery Industrial School , founded and staffed by white northerners for black children, was burned twice by arsonists. Its faculty
2520-421: Is deliberate misreporting in order to give selected ethnicities numerical superiority (as in the case of Nigeria's Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo peoples). A 2009 genetic clustering study, which genotyped 1327 polymorphic markers in various African populations, identified six ancestral clusters. The clustering corresponded closely with ethnicity, culture, and language. A 2018 whole genome sequencing study of
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#17330857673372640-650: The British and the American sides, and after the conflict ended the Northern United States gradually abolished slavery. However, the American South , which had an economy dependent on plantations operation by slave labor, entrenched the slave system and expanded it during the westward expansion of the United States . During this period, numerous enslaved African Americans escaped into free states and Canada via
2760-539: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 , which outlawed racial discrimination. The 2020 United States census reported that 46,936,733 respondents identified as African Americans, forming roughly 14.2% of the American population . Of those, over 2.1 million immigrated to the United States as citizens of modern African states. African Americans have made major contributions to the culture of the United States , including literature , cinema and music . African Americans are
2880-922: The Pygmy populations in Central Africa ; and the Khoisan populations in Southern Africa. As a first overview, the following table lists major groups by ethno-linguistic affiliation , with rough population estimates (as of 2016): The following is a table of major ethnic groups (10 million people or more): [REDACTED] Media related to Ethnic groups in Africa at Wikimedia Commons [REDACTED] Africa [REDACTED] Eurasia [REDACTED] North America [REDACTED] Oceania [REDACTED] South America Rosa Parks Rosa Louise McCauley Parks (February 4, 1913 – October 24, 2005)
3000-460: The Thirteen Colonies , New France , and New Spain (1700–1820): In the account of Olaudah Equiano , he described the process of being transported to the colonies and being on the slave ships as a horrific experience. On the ships, the enslaved Africans were separated from their family long before they boarded the ships. Once aboard the ships the captives were then segregated by gender. Under
3120-796: The Underground Railroad . Disputes over slavery between the Northern and Southern states led to the American Civil War , in which 178,000 African Americans served on the Union side. During the war, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Thirteenth Amendment , which abolished slavery in the U.S., except as punishment for a crime. After the war ended with a Confederate defeat, the Reconstruction era began, in which African Americans living in
3240-502: The Women's Political Council (WPC), about the Parks case. Robinson believed it important to seize the opportunity and stayed up all night mimeographing over 35,000 handbills announcing a bus boycott. The Women's Political Council was the first group to officially endorse the boycott. On Sunday, December 4, 1955, plans for the Montgomery bus boycott were announced at black churches in the area, and
3360-473: The "central and defining event in the development of Afro-Christianity." As the United States grew, the institution of slavery became more entrenched in the southern states , while northern states began to abolish it. Pennsylvania was the first, in 1780 passing an act for gradual abolition. A number of events continued to shape views on slavery. One of these events was the Haitian Revolution , which
3480-607: The 15th century many of the tribes had embraced Islam. Those villages in West Africa which were lucky enough to be in good conditions for growth and success, prospered. They also contributed their success to the slave trade. In all, about 10–12 million Africans were transported to the Western Hemisphere. The vast majority of these people came from that stretch of the West African coast extending from present-day Senegal to Angola;
3600-528: The 1820 Missouri Compromise that required states to be admitted to the union in pairs, one slave and one free. In 1850, after winning the Mexican–American War , a problem gripped the nation: what to do about the territories won from Mexico. Henry Clay, the man behind the compromise of 1820 , once more rose to the challenge, to craft the compromise of 1850 . In this compromise the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada would be organized but
3720-527: The 18th century, enslaved Africans had come to fully supplant indentured servants in providing the labor source for the rapidly expanding plantation system of the Southern Colonies . The population of enslaved African Americans in North America grew rapidly during the 18th and early 19th centuries due to a variety of factors, including a lower prevalence of tropic diseases. Colonial society was divided over
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3840-518: The 1940s, Parks and her husband were members of the League of Women Voters . Sometime soon after 1944, she held a brief job at Maxwell Air Force Base , which, despite its location in Montgomery, Alabama , did not permit racial segregation because it was federal property. She rode on its integrated trolley. Speaking to her biographer, Parks noted, "You might just say Maxwell opened my eyes up." Parks worked as
3960-525: The African-born enslaved. By the time of the American Revolution, several Northern states were considering the abolition of slavery. Some Southern colonies, such as Virginia, had produced such large and self-sustaining native-born enslaved Black populations that they stopped taking indirect imports of enslaved Africans altogether. However, other colonies such as Georgia and South Carolina still relied on
4080-456: The Alabama state court system. Parks played an important part in raising international awareness of the plight of African Americans and the civil rights struggle. King wrote in his 1958 book Stride Toward Freedom that Parks's arrest was the catalyst rather than the cause of the protest: "The cause lay deep in the record of similar injustices." He wrote, "Actually, no one can understand the action of Mrs. Parks unless he realizes that eventually
4200-476: The Americas and enslaved, these different peoples had European standards and beliefs forced upon them, causing them to do away with tribal differences and forge a new history and culture that was a creolization of their common past, present, and European culture . Slaves who belonged to specific African ethnic groups were more sought after and became more dominant in numbers than slaves who belonged to other African ethnic groups in certain regions of what later became
4320-513: The Americas was Estéban , who traveled through the Southwest in the 1530s. In 1619, the first captive Africans were brought via Dutch slave ship to Point Comfort (today Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia ), thirty miles downstream from Jamestown, Virginia . They had been kidnapped by Portuguese slave traders. Virginia settlers treated these captives as indentured servants and released them after
4440-504: The Atlantic; of the roughly 10–12 million Africans who were sold by the Barbary slave trade , either to European slavery or to servitude in the Americas, approximately 388,000 landed in North America. After arriving in various European colonies in North America, the enslaved Africans were sold to white colonists, primarily to work on cash crop plantations. A group of enslaved Africans arrived in
4560-552: The British and Loyalists offered emancipation to any enslaved person owned by a Patriot who was willing to join the Loyalist forces. Lord Dunmore , the Governor of Virginia , recruited 300 African-American men into his Ethiopian regiment within a month of making this proclamation. In South Carolina 25,000 enslaved people, more than one-quarter of the total, escaped to join and fight with
4680-400: The British helped up to 3,000 documented African Americans to leave the country for Nova Scotia , Jamaica and Britain rather than be returned to slavery. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 sought to define the foundation for the government of the newly formed United States of America. The constitution set forth the ideals of freedom and equality while providing for the continuation of
4800-449: The British, or fled for freedom in the uproar of war. Thousands of slaves also escaped in Georgia and Virginia, as well as New England and New York. Well-known African-Americans who fought for the British include Colonel Tye and Boston King . Thomas Peters was one of the large numbers of African Americans who fought for the British . Peters was born in present-day Nigeria and belonged to
4920-565: The Continental Army in 1775, the additional recruitment of Black people was forbidden. Approximately 5000 free African-American men helped the American Colonists in their struggle for freedom. One of these men, Agrippa Hull , fought in the American Revolution for over six years. He and the other African-American soldiers fought in order to improve their white neighbor's views of them and advance their own fight of freedom. By contrast,
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5040-633: The English Virginia Colony in 1619, marking the beginning of slavery in the colonial history of the United States ; by 1776, roughly 20% of the British North American population was of African descent, both free and enslaved. The American Revolutionary War , which saw the Thirteen Colonies become independent and transform into the United States , led to great social upheavals for African Americans; Black soldiers fought on both
5160-570: The Jim Crow laws and discrimination by registrars, she succeeded in registering to vote on her third try. In August 1955, black teenager Emmett Till was brutally murdered after reportedly flirting with a young white woman while visiting relatives in Mississippi . On November 27, 1955, four days before she would make her stand on the bus, Rosa Parks attended a mass meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery that addressed this case, as well as
5280-779: The Montgomery chapter of the NAACP and leader of the Pullman Porters Union , and her friend Clifford Durr bailed Parks out of jail that evening. Parks did not originate the idea of protesting segregation with a bus sit-in . Those preceding her included Bayard Rustin in 1942, Irene Morgan in 1946, Lillie Mae Bradford in 1951, Sarah Louise Keys in 1952, and the members of the ultimately successful Browder v. Gayle 1956 lawsuit ( Claudette Colvin , Aurelia Browder , Susie McDonald , and Mary Louise Smith ) who were arrested in Montgomery for not giving up their bus seats months before Parks. Nixon conferred with Jo Ann Robinson , an Alabama State College professor and member of
5400-455: The Mt. Zion AME Zion Church to discuss boycott strategies. At that time, Parks was introduced but not asked to speak, despite a standing ovation and calls from the crowd for her to speak; when she asked if she should say something, the reply was, "Why, you've said enough." This movement also sparked riots leading up to the 1956 Sugar Bowl . The group agreed that a new organization was needed to lead
5520-594: The North American mainland colonies, forming roughly 10% of the population. Some enslaved Black people had been directly shipped from Africa (most of them were from 1518 to the 1850s), but initially, in the very early stages of the European colonization of North America , occasionally they had been shipped via the West Indies in small cargoes after spending time working on the islands. At the same time, many were born to Africans and their descendants, and thus were native-born on
5640-470: The North American mainland. Their legal status was codified into law with the Virginia Statutes: ACT XII (1662) : setting forth that all children upon birth would inherit the same status of their mother . As European colonists engaged in aggressive expansionism , claiming and clearing more land for large-scale farming and the construction of plantations, the flow of enslaved Africans brought to
5760-399: The Northern states, the revolutionary spirit did help African Americans. Beginning in the 1750s, there was widespread sentiment during the American Revolution that slavery was a social evil (for the country as a whole and for the whites) that should eventually be abolished. All the Northern states passed emancipation acts between 1780 and 1804; most of these arranged for gradual emancipation and
5880-819: The Revolution, more Southerners also freed enslaved people, sometimes by manumission or in wills to be accomplished after the slaveholder's death. In the Upper South, the percentage of free Black people rose from about 1% before the Revolution to more than 10% by 1810. Quakers and Moravians worked to persuade slaveholders to free families. In Virginia, the number of free Black people increased from 10,000 in 1790 to nearly 30,000 in 1810, but 95% of Black people were still enslaved. In Delaware, three-quarters of all Black people were free by 1810. By 1860, just over 91% of Delaware's Black people were free, and 49.1% of those in Maryland. Among
6000-520: The Revolution. Crispus Attucks , a free Black tradesman, was the first casualty of the Boston Massacre and of the ensuing American Revolutionary War . 5,000 Black people, including Prince Hall, fought in the Continental Army . Many fought side by side with White soldiers at the battles of Lexington and Concord and at Bunker Hill . However, upon George Washington 's ascension to commander of
6120-476: The South to other regions of the United States in search of opportunity. The nadir of American race relations led to civil rights efforts to overturn discrimination and racism against African Americans. In 1954, these efforts coalesced into a broad unified movement led by civil rights activists such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. This succeeded in persuading the federal government to pass
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#17330857673376240-455: The South was heavily dependent on agriculture. Southern political economists at this time supported the institution by concluding that nothing was inherently contradictory about owning slaves and that a future of slavery existed even if the South were to industrialize. Racial, economic, and political turmoil reached an all-time high regarding slavery up to the events of the Civil War. In 1807, at
6360-552: The South were granted equal rights with their white neighbors. White opposition to these advancements led to most African Americans living in the South to be disfranchised , and a system of racial segregation known as the Jim Crow laws was passed in the Southern states. Beginning in the early 20th century, in response to poor economic conditions, segregation and lynchings , over 6 million primarily rural African Americans migrated out of
6480-463: The South, and black education was always underfunded. Parks recalled going to elementary school in Pine Level, where school buses took white students to their new school and black students had to walk to theirs: I'd see the bus pass every day ... But to me, that was a way of life; we had no choice but to accept what was the custom. The bus was among the first ways I realized there was a black world and
6600-504: The U.S., only ending for good in 1859. Gradually, a free Black population emerged, concentrated in port cities along the Atlantic coast from Charleston to Boston. Enslaved people who lived in the cities and towns had more privileges than enslaved people who did not, but the great majority of enslaved people lived on southern tobacco or rice plantations, usually in groups of 20 or more. Wealthy plantation owners eventually became so reliant on slavery that they devastated their own lower class. In
6720-580: The United States. Studies of contemporary documents reveal seven regions from which Africans were sold or taken during the Atlantic slave trade. These regions were: The largest source of slaves transported across the Atlantic Ocean for the New World was West Africa. Some West Africans were skilled iron workers and were therefore able to make tools that aided in their agricultural labor. While there were many unique tribes with their own customs and religions, by
6840-598: The Yoruba tribe, and ended up being captured and sold into slavery in French Louisiana . Sold again, he was enslaved in North Carolina and escaped his master's farm in order to receive Lord Dunmore's promise of freedom. Peters had fought for the British throughout the war. When the war finally ended, he and other African Americans who fought on the losing side were taken to Nova Scotia. Here, they encountered difficulty farming
6960-417: The anniversary of her arrest, December 1. Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama , on February 4, 1913, to Leona (née Edwards), a teacher, and James McCauley, a carpenter . In addition to African ancestry, one of Parks's great-grandfathers was Scots-Irish , and one of her great-grandmothers was a part– Native American slave. As a child, she suffered from chronic tonsillitis and
7080-487: The arrival to the plantations of the European masters, took an average of six months. Africans were completely cut off from their families, home, and community life. They were forced to adjust to a new way of life. Africans assisted the Spanish and the Portuguese during their early exploration of the Americas. In the 16th century some Black explorers settled in the Mississippi valley and in the areas that became South Carolina and New Mexico. The most celebrated Black explorer of
7200-467: The battle between enslaved people and slave owners was met in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania . The Christiana Riot demonstrated the growing conflict between states' rights and Congress on the issue of slavery. Abolitionists in Britain and the United States in the 1840–1860 period developed large, complex campaigns against slavery. According to Patrick C. Kennicott, the largest and most effective abolitionist speakers were Black people who spoke before
7320-464: The beginning, but he says, 'Let me have these seats.' And the other three people moved, but I didn't." The black man sitting next to her gave up his seat. Parks moved, but toward the window seat; she did not get up to move to the redesignated colored section. Parks later said about being asked to move to the rear of the bus, "I thought of Emmett Till —a 14-year-old African American who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending
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#17330857673377440-425: The black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for over a year. The case became bogged down in the state courts, but the federal Montgomery bus lawsuit Browder v. Gayle resulted in a November 1956 decision that bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Parks's act of defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of
7560-501: The boycott effort if it were to continue. Rev. Ralph Abernathy suggested the name " Montgomery Improvement Association " (MIA). The name was adopted, and the MIA was formed. Its members elected as their president Martin Luther King Jr. , a relative newcomer to Montgomery, who was a young and mostly unknown minister of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church . That Monday night, 50 leaders of the African-American community gathered to discuss actions to respond to Parks's arrest. Edgar Nixon ,
7680-510: The boycott for 381 days. Dozens of public buses stood idle for months, severely damaging the bus transit company's finances, until the city repealed its law requiring segregation on public buses following the US Supreme Court ruling in Browder v. Gayle that it was unconstitutional. Parks was not included as a plaintiff in the Browder decision because the attorney Fred Gray concluded the courts would perceive they were attempting to circumvent her prosecution on her charges working their way through
7800-404: The brutality of the islands' sugar plantations . From the 1680s onward, the majority of enslaved Africans imported into North America were shipped directly from Africa, and most of them disembarked in ports located in what is now the Southern U.S., particularly in the present-day states of Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana. Black women were often raped by white men. By the turn of
7920-427: The bus again from the back door. When Parks exited the vehicle, Blake drove off without her. Parks waited for the next bus, determined never to ride with Blake again. After working all day, Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus, a General Motors Old Look bus belonging to the Montgomery City Lines , around 6 pm, Thursday, December 1, 1955, in downtown Montgomery. She paid her fare and sat in an empty seat in
8040-437: The buses Monday. It rained that day, but the black community persevered in their boycott. Some rode in carpools, while others traveled in black-operated cabs that charged the same fare as the bus, 10 cents (equivalent to $ 1.14 in 2023). Most of the remainder of the 40,000 black commuters walked, some as far as 20 miles (30 km). That evening after the success of the one-day boycott, a group of 16 to 18 people gathered at
8160-460: The cases she and the Montgomery NAACP had worked on—and yet, the two men still walked free. In 1900, Montgomery had passed a city ordinance to segregate bus passengers by race. Conductors were empowered to assign seats to achieve that goal. According to the law, no passenger would be required to move or give up their seat and stand if the bus was crowded and no other seats were available. Over time and by custom, however, Montgomery bus drivers adopted
8280-451: The continent rapidly increased, beginning in the 1660s. The slave trade from the West Indies proved insufficient to meet demand in the now fast-growing North American slave market. Additionally, most North American buyers of enslaved people no longer wanted to purchase enslaved people who were coming in from the West Indies—by now they were either harder to obtain, too expensive, undesirable, or more often, they had been exhausted in many ways by
8400-430: The countless local meetings of the National Negro Conventions . They used the traditional arguments against slavery, protesting it on moral, economic, and political grounds. Their role in the antislavery movement not only aided the abolitionist cause but also was a source of pride to the Black community. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe published a novel that changed how many would view slavery. Uncle Tom's Cabin tells
8520-413: The cup of endurance runs over, and the human personality cries out, 'I can take it no longer.'" After her arrest, Parks became an icon of the Civil Rights Movement but suffered hardships as a result. Due to economic sanctions used against activists, she lost her job at the department store. Her husband lost his job as a barber at Maxwell Air Force Base after his boss forbade him to talk about his wife or
8640-411: The deck, the enslaved Africans were cramped and did not have enough space to walk around freely. Enslaved males were generally kept in the ship's hold, where they experienced the worst of crowding. The captives stationed on the floor beneath low-lying bunks could barely move and spent much of the voyage pinned to the floorboards, which could, over time, wear the skin on their elbows down to the bone. Due to
8760-689: The descendants of Africans who were forced into slavery after they were captured during African wars or raids. They were captured and brought to America as part of the Atlantic slave trade . African Americans are descended from various ethnic groups, mostly from ethnic groups that lived in West and Central Africa , including the Sahel . A smaller number of African Americans are descended from ethnic groups that lived in Eastern and Southeastern Africa . The major ethnic groups that
8880-551: The developing Deep South. In addition, the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 allowed any Black person to be claimed as a runaway unless a White person testified on their behalf. A number of free Black people, especially indentured children, were kidnapped and sold into slavery with little or no hope of rescue. By 1819 there were exactly 11 free and 11 slave states, which increased sectionalism . Fears of an imbalance in Congress led to
9000-402: The early nineteenth century, and remained a member throughout her life. McCauley attended rural schools until the age of eleven. Before that, her mother taught her "a good deal about sewing." She started piecing quilts from around the age of six, as her mother and grandmother were making quilts, she put her first quilt together by herself around the age of ten, which was unusual, as quilting
9120-527: The enslaved Africans belonged to included the Bakongo , Igbo , Mandinka , Wolof , Akan , Fon , Yoruba , and Makua , among many others. Although these different groups varied in customs, religious theology and language, what they had in common was a way of life which was different from that of the Europeans. Originally, a majority of the people came from these villages and societies, however, once they were sent to
9240-428: The events of the day, Parks said, "When that white driver stepped back toward us, when he waved his hand and ordered us up and out of our seats, I felt a determination cover my body like a quilt on a winter night." By Parks's account, Blake said, "Y'all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats." Three of them complied. Parks said, "The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at
9360-410: The first row of back seats reserved for blacks in the "colored" section. Near the middle of the bus, her row was directly behind the ten seats reserved for white passengers. Initially, she did not notice that the bus driver was the same man, James F. Blake, who had left her in the rain in 1943. As the bus traveled along its regular route, all of the white-only seats in the bus filled up. The bus reached
9480-445: The front to pay the fare, then disembark and reenter through the rear door. For years, the black community had complained that the situation was unfair. Parks said, "My resisting being mistreated on the bus did not begin with that particular arrest. I did a lot of walking in Montgomery." One day in 1943, Parks boarded a bus and paid the fare. She then moved to a seat, but driver James F. Blake told her to follow city rules and enter
9600-692: The institution of slavery through the fugitive slave clause and the three-fifths compromise . Additionally, free Black people's rights were also restricted in many places. Most were denied the right to vote and were excluded from public schools. Some Black people sought to fight these contradictions in court. In 1780, Elizabeth Freeman and Quock Walker used language from the new Massachusetts constitution that declared all men were born free and equal in freedom suits to gain release from slavery. A free Black businessman in Boston named Paul Cuffe sought to be excused from paying taxes since he had no voting rights. In
9720-410: The issue of slavery would be decided later. Washington D.C. would abolish the slave trade but not slavery itself. California would be admitted as a free state but the South would receive a new fugitive slave act which required Northerners to return enslaved people who escaped to the North to their owners. The compromise of 1850 would maintain a shaky peace until the election of Lincoln in 1860. In 1851
9840-512: The kitchen." When Parks asked, "Well, what about me?", he replied: "I need a secretary and you are a good one." In 1944, in her capacity as secretary, she investigated the gang-rape of Recy Taylor , a black woman from Abbeville, Alabama . Parks and other civil rights activists organized " The Committee for Equal Justice for Mrs. Recy Taylor", launching what the Chicago Defender called "the strongest campaign for equal justice to be seen in
9960-468: The lack of basic hygiene, malnourishment, and dehydration diseases spread wildly and death was common. The women on the ships often endured rape by the crewmen. Women and children were often kept in rooms set apart from the main hold. This gave crewmen easy access to the women which was often regarded as one of the perks of the trade system. Not only did these rooms give the crewmen easy access to women but it gave enslaved women better access to information on
10080-484: The law's the law, and you're under arrest." She later said, "I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind. ... " Parks was charged with a violation of Chapter 6, Section 11, segregation law of the Montgomery City code, although technically she had not taken a white-only seat; she had been in a colored section. Edgar Nixon , president of
10200-416: The legal case. Parks traveled and spoke about the issues. In 1957, Raymond and Rosa Parks left Montgomery for Hampton, Virginia ; mostly because she was unable to find work. She also disagreed with King and other leaders of Montgomery's struggling civil rights movement about how to proceed, and was constantly receiving death threats. In Hampton, she found a job as a hostess in an inn at Hampton Institute ,
10320-401: The middle rows until the white section filled. If more whites needed seats, blacks were to move to seats in the rear, stand, or, if there was no room, leave the bus. Black people could not sit across the aisle in the same row as white people. The driver could move the "colored" section sign, or remove it altogether. If white people were already sitting in the front, black people had to board at
10440-456: The more oppressive it became. On the day of Parks's trial—December 5, 1955—the WPC distributed the 35,000 leaflets. The handbill read, We are ... asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial ... You can afford to stay out of school for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups, don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off
10560-429: The most likely candidates to mutiny and only at times they were on deck. While rebellions did not happen often, they were usually unsuccessful. In order for the crew members to keep the enslaved Africans under control and prevent future rebellions, the crews were often twice as large and members would instill fear into the enslaved Africans through brutality and harsh punishments. From the time of being captured in Africa to
10680-546: The movement. She became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation , and organized and collaborated with civil rights leaders, including Edgar Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. At the time, Parks was employed as a seamstress at a local department store and was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. She had recently attended the Highlander Folk School , a Tennessee center for training activists for workers' rights and racial equality. Although widely honored in later years, she also suffered for her act; she
10800-500: The other African Americans on Nova Scotia left for Sierra Leone in 1792. Peters died soon after they arrived, but the other members of his party lived on in their new home where they formed the Sierra Leone Creole ethnic identity. The colonists eventually won the war and the United States was recognized as a sovereign nation. In the provisional treaty, they demanded the return of property, including enslaved people. Nonetheless,
10920-412: The practice of requiring black riders to move when there were no white-only seats left. The first four rows of seats on each Montgomery bus were reserved for whites. Buses had "colored" sections for black people generally in the rear of the bus, although blacks composed more than 75% of the ridership. The sections were not fixed but were determined by placement of a movable sign. Black people could sit in
11040-402: The president of the NAACP, said, "My God, look what segregation has put in my hands!" Parks was considered the ideal plaintiff for a test case against city and state segregation laws, as she was seen as a responsible, mature woman with a good reputation. She was securely married and employed, was regarded as possessing a quiet and dignified demeanor, and was politically savvy. King said that Parks
11160-482: The recent murders of the activists George W. Lee and Lamar Smith . The featured speaker was T. R. M. Howard , a black civil rights leader from Mississippi who headed the Regional Council of Negro Leadership . Howard brought news of the recent acquittal of the two men who had murdered Till. Parks was deeply saddened and angry at the news, particularly because Till's case had garnered much more attention than any of
11280-549: The religious and moral implications of slavery, though it remained legal in each of the Thirteen Colonies until the American Revolution. Slavery led to a gradual shift between the American South and North, both before and after independence, as the comparatively more urbanized and industrialized North required fewer slaves than the South. By the 1750s, the native-born enslaved population of African descent outnumbered that of
11400-434: The scale and rid the United States of slavery. The latter half of the 18th century was a time of significant political upheaval on the North American continent. In the midst of cries for independence from British rule, many pointed out the hypocrisy inherent in colonial slaveholders' demands for freedom. The Declaration of Independence , a document which would become a manifesto for human rights and personal freedom around
11520-437: The ship's crew, fortifications, and daily routine, but little opportunity to communicate this to the men confined in the ship's hold. As an example, women instigated a 1797 insurrection aboard the slave ship Thomas by stealing weapons and passing them to the men below as well as engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the ship's crew. In the midst of these terrible conditions, enslaved Africans plotted mutiny. Enslaved males were
11640-420: The slaves involved in the uprising. At this time, slavery existed in all American colonies. In the North, 2% of people owned enslaved people, most of whom were personal servants. In the south, 25% of the population relied on the labour of enslaved people. Southern slavery usually took the form of field hands who lived and worked on plantations. These statistics show the early imbalance that would eventually tip
11760-486: The small plots of lands they were granted. They also did not receive the same privileges and opportunities as the white Loyalists had. Peters sailed to London in order to complain to the government. "He arrived at a momentous time when English abolitionists were pushing a bill through Parliament to charter the Sierra Leone Company and to grant it trading and settlement rights on the West African coast." Peters and
11880-482: The story of the life of an enslaved person and the brutality that is faced by that life day after day. It would sell over 100,000 copies in its first year. The popularity of Uncle Tom's Cabin would solidify the North in its opposition to slavery, and press forward the abolitionist movement. President Lincoln would later invite Stowe to the White House in honor of this book that changed America. In 1856 Charles Sumner ,
12000-470: The successful free men was Benjamin Banneker , a Maryland astronomer, mathematician, almanac author, surveyor, and farmer, who in 1791 assisted in the initial survey of the boundaries of the future District of Columbia . Despite the challenges of living in the new country, most free Black people fared far better than the nearly 800,000 enslaved Blacks. Even so, many considered emigrating to Africa. By 1800,
12120-459: The third stop in front of the Empire Theater, and several white passengers boarded. Blake noted that two or three white passengers were standing, as the front of the bus had filled to capacity. The bus driver moved the "colored" section sign behind Parks and demanded that four black people give up their seats in the middle section so that the white passengers could sit. Years later, in recalling
12240-446: The thousands, with each ethnicity generally having their own language (or dialect of a language) and culture . The ethnolinguistic groups include various Afroasiatic , Khoisan , Niger-Congo , and Nilo-Saharan populations. The official population count of the various ethnic groups in Africa is highly uncertain due to limited infrastructure to perform censuses, and due to rapid population growth. Some groups have alleged that there
12360-399: The urging of President Thomas Jefferson , Congress abolished the importation of enslaved workers. While American Black people celebrated this as a victory in the fight against slavery, the ban increased the internal trade in enslaved people. Changing agricultural practices in the Upper South from tobacco to mixed farming decreased labor requirements, and enslaved people were sold to traders for
12480-450: The white-established Jim Crow laws , passed after Democrats regained control of southern legislatures, racial segregation was imposed in public facilities and retail stores in the South , including public transportation. Bus and train companies enforced seating policies with separate sections for blacks and whites. School bus transportation was unavailable in any form for black schoolchildren in
12600-779: The world's populations observed similar clusters among the populations in Africa. At K=9, distinct ancestral components defined the Afroasiatic -speaking populations inhabiting North Africa and Northeast Africa ; the Nilo-Saharan -speaking populations in Northeast Africa and East Africa ; the Ari populations in Northeast Africa; the Niger-Congo -speaking populations in West-Central Africa, West Africa , East Africa, and Southern Africa ;
12720-699: The world, was written by Thomas Jefferson , a man who owned over 200 enslaved people. Other Southern statesmen were also major slaveholders. The Second Continental Congress considered freeing enslaved people to assist with the war effort, but they also removed language from the Declaration of Independence that included the promotion of slavery amongst the offenses of King George III . A number of free Black people, most notably Prince Hall —founder of Prince Hall Freemasonry —submitted petitions which called for abolition, but these were largely ignored. This did not deter Black people, free and enslaved, from participating in
12840-523: The years to come, the institution of slavery would be so heavily involved in the South's economy that it would divide America. The most serious slave rebellion was the 1739 Stono Uprising in South Carolina. The colony had about 56,000 enslaved Blacks, outnumbering whites two-to-one. About 150 enslaved people rose up, seizing guns, ammunition, and killing twenty whites before fleeing to Spanish Florida . The local militia soon intercepted and killed most of
12960-542: Was a crime to kill an enslaved person, for example, and several whites were hanged for it. Generally, enslaved Africans developed their own family system, religion, and customs in the slave quarters with little interference from owners, who were only interested in work outputs. Before the 1660s, the North American mainland colonies were still fairly small in size and did not have a great demand for labour, so colonists did not import large numbers of enslaved Africans at this point. By 1700, there were 25,000 enslaved Black people in
13080-460: Was an American activist in the civil rights movement , best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott . The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". Parks became an NAACP activist in 1943, participating in several high-profile civil rights campaigns. On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama , Parks rejected bus driver James F. Blake 's order to vacate
13200-513: Was fired from her job and received death threats for years afterwards. Shortly after the boycott, she moved to Detroit , where she briefly found similar work. From 1965 to 1988, she served as secretary and receptionist to John Conyers , an African-American US Representative . She was also active in the black power movement and the support of political prisoners in the US. After retirement, Parks wrote her autobiography and continued to insist that there
13320-571: Was going to stand up, and I said, 'No, I'm not.' And he said, 'Well, if you don't stand up, I'm going to have to call the police and have you arrested.' I said, 'You may do that. ' " During a 1956 radio interview with Sydney Rogers in West Oakland several months after her arrest, Parks said she had decided, "I would have to know for once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen." In her autobiography, My Story , she said: People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I
13440-399: Was just time ... there was opportunity for me to take a stand to express the way I felt about being treated in that manner. I had not planned to get arrested. I had plenty to do without having to end up in jail. But when I had to face that decision, I didn't hesitate to do so because I felt that we had endured that too long. The more we gave in, the more we complied with that kind of treatment,
13560-510: Was mainly a family activity performed when there was no field work or chores to be done. She learned more sewing in school from the age of eleven; she sewed her own "first dress [she] could wear". As a student at the Industrial School for Girls in Montgomery from 1925 to 1928, she took academic and vocational courses. As the school closed in 1928, she transferred to Booker T. Washington Junior High School for her final year. Parks went on to
13680-757: Was more work to be done in the struggle for justice. She received national recognition, including the NAACP's 1979 Spingarn Medal , the Presidential Medal of Freedom , the Congressional Gold Medal , and a posthumous statue in the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall . Upon her death in 2005, she was the first woman to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda . California and Missouri commemorate Rosa Parks Day on her birthday, February 4, while Ohio , Oregon , and Texas commemorate
13800-548: Was often bedridden; the family could not afford to pay for an operation to address the condition. When her parents separated, she moved with her mother to her grandparents' farm outside Pine Level , where her younger brother Sylvester was born. Rosa joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), a century-old independent black denomination founded by free blacks in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , in
13920-506: Was ostracized by the white community. Repeatedly bullied by white children in her neighborhood, Parks often fought back physically. She later said: "As far back as I remember, I could never think in terms of accepting physical abuse without some form of retaliation if possible." By January 1, 1946, Parks was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star . In 1932, Rosa married Raymond Parks ,
14040-433: Was regarded as "one of the finest citizens of Montgomery—not one of the finest Negro citizens, but one of the finest citizens of Montgomery". Parks's court case was being slowed down in appeals through the Alabama courts on their way to a Federal appeal and the process could have taken years. Holding together a boycott for that length of time would have been a great strain. In the end, black residents of Montgomery continued
14160-471: Was the first colony to legalize slavery in 1641. Other colonies followed suit by passing laws that made slave status heritable and non-Christian imported servants slaves for life. At first, Africans in the South were outnumbered by white indentured servants who came voluntarily from Europe. They avoided the plantations. With the vast amount of arable land and a shortage of laborers, plantation owners turned to African slavery. The enslaved had some legal rights—it
14280-535: Was the only slave revolt that led to an independent country. Many slave owners fled to the United States with tales of horror and massacre that alarmed Southern whites. The invention of the cotton gin in the 1790s allowed the cultivation of short staple cotton, which could be grown in much of the Deep South, where warm weather and proper soil conditions prevailed. The industrial revolution in Europe and New England generated
14400-473: Was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. When Parks refused to give up her seat, a police officer arrested her. As the officer took her away, she recalled that she asked, "Why do you push us around?" She remembered him saying, "I don't know, but
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