African Americans
Where Were They From:
Africa. All or most African Americans are descendants from the Continent of Africa. There were an estimated 24 million Afro-Americans in the United States in the mid-1970, a figure making them not only the largest ethnic group in the America, but the second only to Afro-Brazilians in the Western Hemisphere.
When:
The origins of individual African Americans cannot be determined accurately. European record-keepers were not careful about the subtler differences among Africans, and their records often referred to the general place of embarkation, not to the specific groups within the area.
The permanent settlement of Africans in North American began around 1619 when a Dutch frigate sold 20 blacks to English colonists at Jamestown, a year before the Mayflower landed Pilgrims at Plymount.
What region of the US did they settle:
According to recent estimates, approximately 10 million slaves landed in the Western Hemisphere. The majority arrived in North American colonies but mostly in the south.
What occupations did they take part in:
About 60 percent of them arrived in the 18th century and were destined for the sugar plantations of Brazil and the Caribbean, British North America and French Louisiana. Most were slaves and slavery lasted some 400 years. In contemporary times most were laborers.
What are the family patterns, Rituals:
Planters sought to diminish the authority of the black male in the family, possibly to reinforce their self-images as plantation patriarchs, but they have to allow a certain amount of male assertiveness and responsibility in order to maintain order and morale. Most slaves sought to maintain stable two-parent households, and many marriages lasted for ten years or more suggesting that marriage and family were internalized cultural values. The large percentage of sons named for their fathers suggests the important status of the male parent . Naming practices also indicate the resilience of African concepts of kin: children were named for grandparents, uncles, and aunts; and the practice of addressing elders as “auntie” and “uncle” was a quite likely a slave invention to show respect.
Are they a group that appreciate schooling:
The lowering of barriers to schooling, collegiate and professional education offered hope of even more rapid equalization in the future. There was more than 85 percent increase in black college enrollment between 1964 and 1968, most of it attributable to the 144 percent expansion of black enrollment in white college. “Black Americans came bearing three gifts: the gift of story and song, the gift of sweat and brawn, and the gift of spirit.”
What are the basis demographics today?
African Americans comprise the United States' largest racial minority, accounting for 12.1 percent of the total US population in 2000. This population is concentrated largely in the southern states and urban areas.
Fun Facts:
Given that widespread literacy and education were 20th –century phenomena for Afro-Americans, the contributions of black scientists and the more than 300 patents awarded to black inventors before 1900 are impressive. During the 19th century Norbert Rillieux (1806-1894) invented the vacuum-cup evaporation process which revolutionized sugar refining, Jan E. Matzerliger (1852-1889) .
Famous People
Michael Donald
Fannie Lou Hammer
Maya Angelou
Thurgood Marshall
May McLeod Bethune
John Brown
Linda Brown
Ruby Bridges
Frederick Douglass
Marcus Garvey
Jesse Jackson
Homer Plessy
Dred Scott
Sojourner Truth