History

Journal Entry 1: The first African slaves were brought to Jamestown, Virginia in 1619. The English settlers treated these captives as indentured servants and released them after a number of years. This practice was gradually replaced by the system of race-based slavery used in the Caribbean. As servants were freed, they became competition for resources. Additionally, released servants had to be replaced. This, combined with the still ambiguous nature of the social status of Blacks and the difficulty in using any other group of people as forced servants, led to the relegation of Blacks into slavery. Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery in 1641. Other colonies followed suit by passing laws that passed slavery on to the children of slaves and making non-Christian imported servants slaves for life. My name is Grace and I am African American. And I was born a slave, and have been a slave until now. We have lived on the plantations since I can remember. A lot of times families get separated because of their owners, but we are owned by the same family. Since we were told that we have to move. It has been very difficult and confusing for me. My family and I have had to move to America on a boat. My family has always been together , this situation is difficult. Because of the move most of my family has been separated, but I am still here with my grandmother, mother and two sisters. I do not know why we are moving from the plantations, but we were told we had to go. We are migrating to the America. Things hasn’t changed for us slaves in America. I don’t fully understand why that is, I can only pray things will change, I imagine a place where everyone is no longer segregated. I can remember when I used to sneak and play with the slave owners daughter, we would have should a good time , jumping rope and dancing around in the yard, but once her father found out we could no longer play together. Everything I do I have to do with my own race because interacting with the other races is not permitted. My grandmother would tell me stories all the time about our ancestors, and how it came to be this way. She told me that our history starts a long time ago when our ancestors, the first slaves from Africa, were brought from Africa also on a Dutch ship (African Americans). She also told me that an English Colony was founded at Jamestown, Virginia years before the ship sailed. She told me that she overheard our slave master saying that we slaves are essential to the economy of Virginia, which is where we lived. There was another race that used to be slaves also, but are not as much anymore, but because of reasons that we do not know, they are not really slaves anymore. They were slaves mostly in the South Americas. After hearing all of these stories I became even more confused. I do not understand why all of this is happening to us. And I would just more question, and more question, and she would just tell me that one day things will change, and one day there will be no more slavery and that we will all be free and equal to one another. I can only imagine the day. I asked her how this will happen. She told me that one day people will see us as equals. That means that we will be able to eat at the same place, sit together, use the same restrooms, and also be friends no matter the color of our skin. I talked to my grandmother often because I did not know when they would come and take her away from me. One day my mother and I were out shopping for our owner and I had to use the bathroom, and I made a mistake and went into the wrong bathroom an older lady saw me and told my slave master. And I thought I would lose my family, because I have seen it happen before I was afraid. I did not lose my family, but my mother had to remind me of which restroom to use again. I did not understand why I had to use that bathroom. So I ask my mother why we have to have different bathrooms because I did not understand what made us different. She told me that it is, just the way it is. After talking with my mother, I just tried to think about the future with things are no longer separated by race. African Americans: A Brief History • Page name: African-American history • Author: Wikipedia contributors • Publisher: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. • Date of last revision: 31 August 2011 20:16 UTC • Date retrieved: 6 September 2011 19:01 UTC • Permanent link: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php'title=African-American_history&oldid=447716632 • Primary contributors: Revision history statistics • Page Version ID: 447716632