Black history in the United States began in 1619, when a Dutch trading ship brought twenty Africans to Jamestown, Virginia. These people arrived as slaves or as indentured servants. Soon thereafter being of African decent became synonymous with being a slave. The southern colonies plantation system was built on slavery. Slaves were present in all of the 15 southern states. There were 700,000 slaves in the United States by 1790, and 4 million before the civil war. Although some worked …
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…Crow laws still formally segregated U.S. society into two racial castes until the 1960's. People of African descent continue to occupy a subordinate position in the United States. The median income of African American families in 1995 was $25,970, 61 percent of the $42,646 earned by white families (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1996). For more than 350 years, people of African ancestry in the United States have struggled for equality, yet a social hierarchy based on race persists.