How did Africans become African-Americans?

Answer 1

The initial Africans first set foot in the continent of America during or round about the age of the Egyptian Dynasties (btw 3100-2100 BC). According to recent study, it was deduced that they embarked on commerce voyages to and fro the continent supplying the channels with salt and precious metals. It is suggested that there was a great connection with the "Olmec" civilisation of Mexico.

The most recent migration was forced upon them during the hollocausts of the 16-18th Century which became known as the slave trade. African people were sold into slavery and transported by way of force into American South in 1619, by the European traders. Hundreds were cramped into the large ships, and endured hideous conditions.

How They Got HereThe Spanish began slave trading in the West Indies in the 1600's. Then a British Company got into it and bought, kidnapped and sold the African people into bondage under the approval of Queen Elizabeth who only ask if any of them were 'taken against their will' and the answer was no that they were basically doing them a favor by introducing them into civilization. how african americans came hereThey were brought by ship to be slaves on plantations and factories. African Americans came to America because they were either kidnapped or purchased from Africa or they were brought their from tribes that owned slaves.

Don't listen to the 1st guy, he obviously was breast feed by his father! I qoute... " The Spanish began slave trading in the West Indies in the 1600's. Then a British Company got into it and bought, kidnapped and sold the African people into bondage under the approval of Queen Elizabeth who only ask if any of them were 'taken against their will' and the answer was no that they were basically doing them a favor by introducing them into civilization".

Really...

Everything you said was true... except for the last part my friend.. Introducing them to civilization, wow... You do realize that the Sumerians introduced THE 1st CIVILAZTION....EVER back in 3rd early millennium B.C. and earlier.

The cities of Sumer were the first civilization to practice intensive, year-round History_of_agriculture, by 5000 BC ...Educate yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sumer

You and many others need to face the reality of things. Most things that whites THINK they came up with or introduced someone to something.. You haven't, nor are you the first to devise it. Early Blacks had the 1st civilization, the 1st to devise agriculture. While whites were living in caves... aka cave men, Blacks were living in a huge ass city, that had drinking lounges, music halls, medicine shops, hospitals.. etc .. This is just something like most has been kept from you since birth, odd thing is you are actually taught about the Sumerians in school its just no one ever references them as being black. Sorta of like how early Egyptians are perceived, they also were early black. Cleopatra was not black, Julius Caesar even describes her as the Nubian Queen.

WTF up America....seriously
African Americans arrived in America from the slave trade. They were bought and sold as slaves for cheap labor to maintain their crops or any or services someone required. At the time they were considered "lesser" than white people.
they traveled by slave ships all the slave would be at the bottom of the ship and then the Americans would be controlling the ship.

Answer 2

Here is a commentary that I would like to make on the use of the term (as well as the history) of that of 'African American' ....

Because African-American (AA) is actually an ETHNIC grouping (as opposed to being a RACIAL grouping) -- there is NO "RACIAL QUALIFICATION" REQUIRED in order to or a person to be an AA.

More than 70% of the AAs are of a Mixed-Race Lineage; about 25% of the AAs are of a full-Black lineage; and 5% of the AAs are found to have no traces of Black lineage in their ancestry whatsoever.

One should NOT assume, HOWEVER, that any person who is from the continent of Africa and who becomes an American citizen ---- can be an African-American, NOR that any African person living in the Americas is automatically an African-American.

This is not how the term is used.

African-American is an ETHNIC description used to describe ONLY those people who .... are the descendants of and can trace their ancestry back to the survivors of the targets of the chattel-slave system which took place on the continental U.S. during the antebellum era of the nations history.

Most white people found in the continent of Africa did not have ancestors from the continental United States who were chattel-slaves during the antebellum era --- and therefore they aren't African-Americans.

Much like actress Charlize Theron is a white person who was from South Africa then became an expatriate to the United States (and is said to have, since, become an American) is NOT a member of the very unique African-American (AA) Ethnic grouping (as AAs are an Ethnic group, not a Race group) -- but rather, Ms. Theron is 'a White American who is of 'South African' Ethnicity' (and is not a member of the very unique Ethnic grouping now called African-American)

In addition, while a common history of 'slavery' can apply to a substantial majority of Americans who are categorized as "black" -- not every "black" person who grows up, lives or works in the United States is an African-American, either

Some black people in America are immigrants, expatriates, tourists and students from the Black Diaspora - and have no personal ties to the African-American ethnicity or related history.

These people are often part of Ethnic group such as the Afro-Cubans, Jamaicans, New Zealanders,

Maroons, British West Indians, etc.

For instance, model Melyssa Ford, Runner Ben Johnson and singer Deborah Cox are all African-Canadians. They all work in the U.S., some live here. They are not African-Americans.

Also, Barack Obama's father is from Kenya, his mother has Irish roots.

Neither of his parents are "descendants-of-the-survivors" of the chattel-slavery system that took place on the continental United States during the antebellum era.

Barack Obama can be described as either a 'Black' American or as a 'half-Black' American -- but he is not a member of the very unique African-American Ethnicity

He does, however, seem to strongly identify with that particular Ethnic grouping of people; he has a good number of constituents who are of that Ethnicity; he has married into an African-American family and has children who are half African-American.

But both Barack and his children have an east African Kenyan ancestry -- whereas his wife, Michelle's, "black" ancestry comes from West Africa.

"African-American is an ETHNIC description used to describe ONLY those people who .... are the descendants of and can trace their ancestry back to the survivors of the targets of the chattel-slave system which took place on the continentalUnited States during the antebellum era of the nations history."

Answer 3

Africa is referred to as the cradle of mankind,ie the oldest know human fossils was discovered in Africa.Since Africa is the natural habitat of the black race it is therefore assume that these are fossilized black people.The answer to your question is therefore black people was always present in Africa.

Answer 4

African-American refers exclusively to Black Africans who are the descendants of slaves held in the United States. It is a term that EXCLUDES Americans who are (1) Black Africans who are the descendants of slaves held outside of the United States - such as Black Brazilians, Jamaicans, etc., (2) Black Africans whose ancestors were never enslaved - such as recent Kenyan immigrants to the US, (3) and Africans who happen to be White, Arab, Amazigh, or Egyptian Africans, because they are not Black.

The way that they became united as a cultural and ethnic category was through the common travails and repression that this group suffered from the inception of the "Curious Institution", American Slavery based on a concept of racial subhumanism. Unlike other repressed minorities, like Jews or Hispanics, African slaves were forcibly separated from their families and placed with individuals whose native languages were mutually unintelligible. As a result, they were forced to develop a new culture, language, and spiritual identity. One of the differences between African-Americans and Afro-Caribbeans was that the much smaller groups of African-Americans on a particular plantation allowed for much less of African traditions like voodoo to be preserved in the new identity. As a result, African-Americans defined their experience in much more local American ideas than an integration of their prior culture in a new paradigm, which happened in the Caribbean to a greater extent.