Chapter 3: "Slavery and Immigrants from Africa"

While reading this chapter, I became a lot more interested and fascinated by the history of African Americans. Growing up, students learn that the first Africans to come to America were those that were brought in because of slavery. I don't know why, but until the reading, it never occurred to me, that the importing of slaves to America could be seen as "forced immigration". America is a nation filled with different ethnicities and cultures. It's not everyday that you stop to think about when and where each ethnic group gets their start here.

I think the thing that intrigued me the most was what was written in the last paragraph of page 55, "The contemporary documents generated about African slaves are all written by slave traders, masters, and other white observers." On page 56, it also says, "We do not even know the names of the Africans who came here, only what their masters decided to call them." I didn't necessarily feel bad, it's just a sad thought to think about how true those statements are. Yes, the status of Africans bettered throughout time, but it's interesting to know that white observers were basically the reason why Africans had their start in America.

About two semesters ago, I took a cultural anthropology class. In that class, we talked about the origin of the human race. According to that class, the origin of the human race is Africa, which I found ironic.