African Americans In The 19th Century

Power is the main reasons for the formation of systematic oppression, racism, and prejudice towards African Americans in America. It has always been about economic, social, and political power. The English first kidnapped Africans and brought them to Britain to work as slaves in order to gain economic power. Jim Crow laws used to enforce segregation was used in order for white europeans to keep social power over African Americans in the United States. Similar laws were enacted and black people were denied rights in Britain. Political power were used by white people to create policies that can be used to control the actions of black people. This greed for power lead to inequality among African Americans and white people throughout the world
in the sixteenth century.

During the time period of the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, the triangular trade (also known as the transatlantic slave trade) occurred which was the trade of slaves from West Africa, cash crops, and manufactured goods between Britain, Africa, and America. The voyages went from England to Africa, Africa to America, and then back to England drastically changed the economies of all of the countries. The ships from England carried manufacture goods such as guns, ammunition, and cloth to Africa in exchange for slaves.
The Middle Passage was the route the ships took to America to trade the slaves for sugar, cotton, tobacco, and other goods. Approximately two million Africans died because of the unsanitary conditions on the boat on the middle passage and approximately twelve million Africans were shipped. The voyage from America took raw materials back to England and the process would start all over again. The effects of the triangular trade and slavery still has a present on Britain and America to this very day. In the opening scene of the film “13th” directed by Ava DuVernay, a white male stated, “We are the products of the history of the history our ancestors chose if we were white. If we are black, we are the products of the history our ancestors most likely did not choose.” The words “most likely” caught my attention because Africans definitely did not choose to be brought here to America or Britain. Africans were kidnapped or sold. They did not willingly choose to leave their homeland and work under a colonist as a slave. Malcolm X, a civil rights leader in America, said it best for both sides, “Our forefathers weren’t the
Pilgrims. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; the rock was landed on us. We were brought here against our will; we were not brought here to be made citizens. We were not brought here to enjoy the constitutional gifts they speak so beautifully about…” For these very reasons, the British abolitionist movement put pressure on parliament to end the slave trade and kept the issue in public light. They utilized boycotts, mass petitions, and wrote articles in news papers about it. The strategy of nonviolent direct nonviolent actions were utilized in the United States by one of the many civil rights activists, Martin Luther King, Jr. This very same strategy later started to be used in London by the London Black Revolutionaries. At one point in time Britain got the hopes of over 14,000 slaves who fought for Britain during the American revolution after promising them freedom. The mass immigration of Africans from North America to London occurred after the war ended in 1738. Instead of being rewarded with liberty as they were promised, black people became beggars, homeless, and unemployed. Thousands of black people living in Britain suffered from poverty, crimes, and disease. Unfortunately, the only solution the British government came up with to end poverty was to pay for black people to return to Africa which didn’t end to well. Due to the environmental issues such as climate and human nature and poverty, only two-thirds of the black population who left Britain survived.