The history of African Americans is a troubled and suffered path, marked by slavery, segregation and racial hatred, to the point that 400 years later the KKK cells have not completely disappeared. But despite all this, in 2008 the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr it came about, at least in part, when the first black president in history was elected. Barack Obama .
Our journey begins around 1500, in the heart of sub-Saharan Africa, through the smoke of war hundreds of soldiers fall due to the territorial disputes of the kings who enslaved prisoners of war, and then sold them to Europeans who did not they also had trouble capturing free citizens. This led to the frightening slave trade that will be remembered as “ Maafa "In the Swahili language, or" Disaster "Where 15% of the goods died from dehydration ( they drank only half a liter of water a day ) or because of the bestial conditions to which they were reduced.
Given the weak nature of the Indios of the new world in the face of the diseases brought by the colonialists and their physicists not inclined to forced labor, blacks proved to be the ideal solution for the plantations. The east coast of what was still owned by the British crown was already teeming with blacks, especially in the state of Virgina. The merchandise was being sold at auctions with prices we would now consider ridiculous, such as £ 100 ( Around € 115 ), which should be reconsidered given the quality of life at the time. The slaves were examined by customers to check the presence of diseases and the state of health in a sort of auction after which the contract was signed. In all this the blacks did not really understand what was happening given the linguistic difference between them and the colonialists.
Some myths to dispel about this era are in favor of slaveholders, for example:not all citizens of the south owned slaves and those who did have a maximum of 5, a small number of slaveholders were also counted among the indigenous North Americans , the cotton produced in the south served to satisfy the demand of the north ( much more industrialized ) to make clothes that in turn would return south to cover those slaves who picked it up and most of the kidnapped slaves were men.
The first case of a slave is recorded in 1655, a man named Anthony Johnson ( A black man, of Angolan origin and a former slave himself ) wins a lawsuit that forces a certain John Casor to legally serve their master forever. Ironic how both individuals in the story were black.
Most slaves were sent to work on tobacco, sugar and cotton plantations while some women were sent to brothels ( one in three prostitutes in the far west was a slave ) still others obtained roles in the care of the house or as companions of their masters while some had the role of superintendents of the plantations and also had the power to beat other slaves if they deemed it necessary. These brutal conditions served to “ dehumanize ”And to make colonialists feel safer and at peace with their conscience.
Despite the excruciating suffering, the oppressed population will rebel more than once with extreme anger and uncontrolled ferocity. The most important uprising was the one led by Nat Turner . Turner was a religious preacher and one of the few blacks who could read ( illegal in those days ), driven by anger, he went house to house killing all whites (including women and children) and freeing the slaves until he reached a total of 70 freed blacks and 60 people killed, until the rebellion was stopped by the militia. After his rebellion, the living conditions of the slaves became even worse, which is why many slaves did not rebel but fought oppression in another way, namely by refusing dehumanization and forming families. Small families in which to feel safe and proud, but even those were divided with the sale of children or parents to other plantations.
In this era of slavery that will last from 1641 with the first law that allows ownership of blacks in Boston until 1865 with the declaration of emancipation after the civil war. Memorable characters will live on both sides, to name a few:
The United States was divided because of the slavery issue, the tension peaked with the birth of the Confederate States of America in 1861 they declared the secession from the Union and thus gave the American Civil War. The conflict will prove to be the bloodiest in American history, leading to the deaths of 620,000 people , a number unattainable even by combining the dead on the fronts of the First, Second World War and Vietnam. The military and logistical superiority of the Union will prevail and with the passage of the " thirteenth amendment "By Lincoln slavery was finally abolished, but the path to equality was still long.
In the post-war period, the situation in the south was catastrophic. Poverty was rampant, the population was unmotivated and the cities were reduced to ruins. In this absurd slaughterhouse the newly freed slaves were finally free people but without any job sustenance, no one would have wanted to hire a black man and treat him like a human being, and they lived in constant terror of the KKK, a newborn movement dedicated to the terrorism of the former. slaves. A widespread practice at that time was public lynching, using any excuse the population brought the death penalty to every African American citizen and then beat and hanged him, sometimes even having his body photographed. These creepy images will inspire Billie Holiday to write “ Strange Fruit “, An extremely controversial song about these strange fruits dangling in the southern breeze.
As mentioned earlier, the road to equality was still a long way off, in fact, despite being recognized as citizens, there was the problem of racial segregation that separated whites from blacks in every area of daily life. Bathrooms, buses, schools, churches. In the north, too, segregation separated society into two colors. This last obstacle will not prevent the black population from rebelling by forming different movements for their rights such as the NAACP ( National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ) in 1909 and the SCLC ( Southern Christian Leadership Conference ) by Dr. Martin Luther King in 1957.
The path was bathed several times by blood, and the martyrs were too many but in the end the marches and boycotts were successful with the signing of the then President Lyndon Johnson on the Voting Right Act blacks did finally get access to the polls. Of course, hatred remained harbored by certain people, but that is inevitable. As the years went by, the tension subsided and the idea of equality began to settle in everyone's heads also thanks to great successes such as "Guess who's coming to dinner?" bringing inter-racial marriage to the big screen for the first time, and to people like Tommie Smith and John Carlos who, once obtained the bronze medal and the gold medal at the Olympics, raised their fist (symbol of black pride) on the podium.
Today, with the election of an African American president, the situation seems to have reached an end but with the recent acts of Ferguson and the controversial police brutality against black youth it seems to be taking a step back on this long march. Will there ever be equality? How long “freedom will ring” ?
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