My Journal Entry
Sunday, August 28, 1968
Dear Diary,
I know it's been a while, but I knew I needed to get some of the stuff out of my head. And I won't mention that I might be in trouble with Momma, so I decided to come to my room to get out of her way. This has been quite a busy and hot day Sunday afternoon here in South Carolina. My family and I attended church services this morning and had a great time. The church was crowded and the music and sermon were quite uplifting. The minister preached for nearly forty-five minutes about how we must be faithful to Christ as we walk our Christian journey. He spent a great deal of time preaching about our ancestors and how their faith in God and close family relationships kept them strong. He talked about how our ancestors came on slave ships from all over the continent of Africa and survived slavery. I know my ancestors were brave and strong. After church services, I decided to read a little more about my history and talk with my family members who stopped by the house after Sunday church service. I knew from my teacher and from family conversations that African Americans started to arrive to the United States in 1619 as slaves. By 1860, there were 3.5 million enslaved Africans in the Southeast working in manual labor type jobs (Wikipedia, 2008). History tells us that many African-Americans were sold as prisoners of war by African states or kidnapped by Europeans and Africans. The former was more common than the latter as white plantation owners were in desperate need of laborers. Researchers have determined key regions from which many Africans were sold as part of the Atlantic slave trade. They include the Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Ghana (Wikipedia, 2008). Many of these places I have seen on a map, but have never visited. I have also heard my grandparents and other family members talk about stories from these parts of Africa. Some have even said that their parents or grandparents were from the
Dear Diary,
I know it's been a while, but I knew I needed to get some of the stuff out of my head. And I won't mention that I might be in trouble with Momma, so I decided to come to my room to get out of her way. This has been quite a busy and hot day Sunday afternoon here in South Carolina. My family and I attended church services this morning and had a great time. The church was crowded and the music and sermon were quite uplifting. The minister preached for nearly forty-five minutes about how we must be faithful to Christ as we walk our Christian journey. He spent a great deal of time preaching about our ancestors and how their faith in God and close family relationships kept them strong. He talked about how our ancestors came on slave ships from all over the continent of Africa and survived slavery. I know my ancestors were brave and strong. After church services, I decided to read a little more about my history and talk with my family members who stopped by the house after Sunday church service. I knew from my teacher and from family conversations that African Americans started to arrive to the United States in 1619 as slaves. By 1860, there were 3.5 million enslaved Africans in the Southeast working in manual labor type jobs (Wikipedia, 2008). History tells us that many African-Americans were sold as prisoners of war by African states or kidnapped by Europeans and Africans. The former was more common than the latter as white plantation owners were in desperate need of laborers. Researchers have determined key regions from which many Africans were sold as part of the Atlantic slave trade. They include the Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Angola, and Ghana (Wikipedia, 2008). Many of these places I have seen on a map, but have never visited. I have also heard my grandparents and other family members talk about stories from these parts of Africa. Some have even said that their parents or grandparents were from the
References: Wikipedia (2008). African American History. Retrieved January 19, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American_history Wikipedia (2008). African American. Retrieved January 19, 2008 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_American