What is African American ?

Fifty percent of the slaves were owned by 10% of the 385,000 slave owners. This concentration within a limited number of agricultural units had important consequences for the lives of most blacks.

Under the plantation system, gang labor was the typical form of employment. Overseers were harsh as a matter of general practice, and brutality was common. Punishment was meted out at the absolute discretion of the owner or the owner's agent.

Slaves could own no property unless sanctioned by a slave master, and rape of a female slave was not considered a crime except as it represented trespassing on another's property. Slaves could not present evidence in court against whites.

Housing, food, and clothing were of poor quality and seldom exceeded what was considered minimally necessary to maintain the desired level of work. Owners reinforced submissive behavior not so much by positive rewards as by severe punishment of those who did not conform

In most of the South it was illegal to teach a black to read or write.
Opposition by Blacks. All Southern states passed slave codes intended to control slaves and prevent any expression of opposition. Outbreaks of opposition did occur, however, including the Gabriel Prosser revolt of 1800, the revolt led by Denmark Vesey in 1822, the Nat Turner rebellion of 1831, and many smaller uprisings.

As a result the substance and the enforcement of repressive laws against blacks became more severe. Blacks were forbidden to carry arms or to gather in numbers except in the presence of a white person.

Free blacks, whether living in the North or South, were confronted with attitudes and actions that differed little from those facing Southern black slaves. Discrimination existed in most social and economic activities as well as in voting and education.

In 1857 the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of the U.S. Supreme Court placed the authority of the Constitution behind decisions made by states regarding the treatment of blacks.

According to the Dred Scott decision, African Americans, even if free, were not intended to be included under the word "citizen" as defined in the Declaration of Independence and could, therefore, claim none of the rights and privileges provided for in that document.

African Americans, one of the largest of the many ethnic groups in the United States. African Americans are mainly of African ancestry, but many have nonblack ancestors as well.

African Americans responded to their treatment under slavery in a variety of ways. In addition to such persons as Prosser, Vesey, and Turner, who openly opposed the slave system, thousands of blacks escaped from slavery and moved to the Northern United States or to Canada.

African Americans are largely the descendants of slaves—people who were brought from their African homelands by force to work in the New World.

Others sought ways to retain some sense of individuality and some vestige of their African heritage under difficult circumstances. Still others accepted the images of themselves that white America sought to project onto them.

Their rights were severely limited, and they were long denied a rightful share in the economic, social, and political progress of the United States.

The result in some cases was the "Uncle Tom" or "Sambo" personality, the black who accepted his or her lowly position as evidence that whites were superior to blacks.

Nevertheless, African Americans have made basic and lasting contributions to American history and culture.

In spite of the absence of legal status and the adverse effects of the domestic slave trade, the African American family retained its traditional role in ordering the relations between adults and children.

At the turn of the 21st century, more than half the country’s more than 36 million African Americans lived in the South; 10 Southern states had black populations exceeding 1 million.

Much religious activity among slaves reflected the influences of African religious practices and served as a means by which slaves could develop and promote views of themselves different from those held by the slave owner

African Americans were also concentrated in the largest cities, with more than 2 million living in New York City and more than 1 million in Chicago.

Detroit, Philadelphia, and Houston each had a black population between 500,000 and 1 million.

As Americans of African descent reached each new plateau in their struggle for equality, they reevaluated their identity.

Outside the South, blacks established separate churches and, eventually, denominations within Protestantism, including many black Baptist churches. Another early denominational effort was the African Methodist Episcopal Church, initially called the Free African Society, which was founded (1787) in Philadelphia by Richard Allen.

The slaveholder labels of black and negro (Spanish for black) were offensive, so they chose the euphemism coloured when they were freed.

Capitalized, Negro became acceptable during the migration to the North for factory jobs. Afro-American was adopted by civil rights activists to underline pride in their ancestral homeland, but black—the symbol of power and revolution—proved more popular.