The Roles and History of African Americans from 1865 to Present
Danielle Bachman
HIS 204: American History Since 1865
Instructor: Corinne O’ Connor
1/21/2015

The Roles and History of African Americans from 1865 to Present

Africans American history plays an important role in American history through the most profound series of events in African history. Even though we still have some prejudice going on today, Americans have gotten better. Most Americans are now looking beyond the color of skin tones and looking for who the person really is on the inside.

. In the world today, many people are aware of the unfortunate situations of African Americans from their arrival here in America through the ordeal of slavery, denial of all human rights, being treated as animals and yet somehow they still were able to survive all of these travesties . African Americans since as far back as 1600’s, have been discriminated against, beat, chained, sexually abused and lynched.

These Events are very important to Black American, for the simple reason of understanding where their ancestors came from, and the struggle that they had to deal with to get to where they are today. Some of the most awful times of slavery, such as, The Black Codes, The Emancipation Proclamation, The Reconstruction period, The Ku Klux Clan, and Harlem Renaissance in order to bring insight of their fight. I hope that this will help us to understand the African Americans here in America and the important roles they played in our American history.

American and Slavery, the immigration history of African Americans is unlike the acclimation of any other migration of other ethnic groups. With a massive transportation of millions of enslaved African Americans across the Atlantic Ocean and performing task such as clearing the land and to plant new crops so colonization to continue to spread. In fact, it spread at such a rate that landowners began to become more dependent on their slaves, Slaves began to have variances in value depending on their skills, education, and muscle. During this time the African slaves fulfilled for tailoring, blacksmiths, long shore men, goldsmiths, and woodworking, even a guide for ships in and out of harbors (Davidson, 2008).

Slavery differed in by geographical location, local economic needs, such as Slavery in the North were not as important due to farms being smaller, and the labor of slaves was not necessary. Slavery in the North was more predominant within big cities where the slaves would work within service and manufacturing industries where they built ships and bind book (Connerly,2002). During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the ownership of slaves grew, and so did the violent acts against them and inhuman slave rights were given to owners that allowed them to beat, mutilate, lynch and kill them.

Slave ownership became a way of life and so did the justification for anyone who wanted to acquire for them. The African American slaves were viewed as commodities and not as people Allowing slave owners to declare fit treatment of them ( Kelly, 1996). During the revolutionary war the Declaration of Independence asserted the equality of all men, however this sidesteps African Americans; and racial divide grew wider and deeper. Aware of the discrepancy owners established “hierarchies of power” a dictatorship placed African Americans at the lowest level of human development (Kelly, 1996)
The wishes of slaves came from fruition in 1863, when president Lincoln created the Emancipation Proclamation, which states that as of Jan 1, 1863 “ all persons held as slaves with in any state or designed part of state, the people where of shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then for afterward and forever free. The government of the united states including the military and naval authority shall recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act to repress such