African-American Immigrations Research Paper

African-American Immigrations

African Immigration to the New World

The initial immigration of Africans and people of African descent is inexorably linked to the slave trade and the institution of chattel slavery in the United States. Although immigration patterns would inevitably vary, they all tended to do so according to the relationship between this country and its regard for slavery. Due to the fact that the beginnings of these people's immigration to the U.S. -- which is noted to have begun as early as the middle of the 16th century (no author) -- precipitated the founding of the nation, Africans and those of African descent would play a fairly integral role in the foundation of the nation-to-be. In purely economic terms, their very landing on American soil already represented the monetary impact that they would have on this society, since slave labor was very costly. Additionally, however, these people would be the most foremost form of labor within certain regions and would come to be one of the most valued assets of the triangular trade that involved the U.S., Europe, and Africa (and parts of the West Indies).

It is interesting to note that the first people of African descent to reach U.S. shores were typically from the West Indies or Europe, and accompanied explorers in the capacity of indentured servants in the mid-16th century. They frequently worked in tandem with European indentured servants (Foley) and were able to integrate themselves into society. However, African immigration began in earnest towards the middle and latter portions of the 17th century, due to the advent of the plantation system and the economic value found in crops such as tobacco, rice, and eventually cotton. There are estimates that "eleven to twelve million Africans were forcibly carried to the Americas," and that "one-half million were taken to what became…the United States" (Berlin). Slaves were taken to port areas such as Providence, Rhode Island; New Orleans, Chesapeake Bay as well as those in Georgia and South Carolina.

The immigration patterns of Africans and those of African descent were two-fold during the initial advent into the U.S. The first involved the middle passage, which was the harrowing journey in cramped, diseased quarters that took place from Africa to the aforementioned port areas. The second, however, was the migration from northern areas including the middle colonies, New England (to a certain extent) and other regions to the southern states in which slavery truly thrived. To that end, it is significant to note that the immigration of Africans and peoples of African descent to the Chesapeake Bay region was most eminent, and most populous, between the latter stages of the 17th century to the middle of the 18th century. From the mid-1700s to the early 19th century, immigration of Africans was largely found in the lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia where slave labor was the nucleus of plantation life and its economy (Berlin). The slave trade was outlawed in the United States in 1808.

Therefore, no matter where Africans and those of African descent initially immigrated to the U.S., the vast majority eventually made their way to the southern area of this country where they would play a vital role in the pecuniary system that the nation used to survive during its early stages. Whereas New England had forms of commerce and trade that include maritime assets such as fishing, the southern sector of the country depended on the forced labor of Africans and African-Americans to fuel the plantation system and its way of life that was largely agricultural. Consequently, most of these people were engaged in rural, agricultural work that proved to be the most profitable during this epoch in American history. The most lucrative of these crops proved to be cotton, which was in very high demand in Europe and in other parts of the world.…