Name:________________________



Name:________________________

African Immigration

Directions: Fill-in-the-Blank- Read the passage to fill in the missing words from the paragraph. These passages are in chronological order. Stay in order on the website. (If you have a problem typing the website then Google ~Immigration... African: Introduction ~)

Introduction

The story of ____________ ___________ is unique among immigrant groups, just as the African experience in America has been uniquely central to the course of ________________ ______.

Unlike other immigrants, most Africans came to North America _________ _________ _______, caught up in a brutal system of _________ _______________. The _____________ they and their descendents endured in the United States was of a harshness seldom surpassed in recent history, and their role in U.S. society was contested with a ferocity that nearly _____ the nation apart.

The centuries-long battle African Americans waged for _____________, for ________, and for ____ _______________ in American society utterly transformed the nation, and shaped the world we live in today. Today, there is no aspect of life in the United States that has not been touched by the African American experience; there is no institution, custom, or daily practice that has not been influenced or remade by the efforts of African American thinkers, workers, artists, activists, and organizers.

Now, more than __ million Americans claim African ancestry, and the number of African immigrants to the U.S. increases every year. The story of African immigration is a long one, but its newest chapters are still being written today.

Beginnings

_______________ and ________________

When Africans ________ came to the New World, they came of their ______ ________ ______, and they arrived at virtually the same moment as the _______ Europeans. During the 16th century, African adventurers joined into the spirit of the Age of Exploration and crisscrossed the globe. In the early 1500s, Africans trekked across Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador, conquered New Mexico with Coronado, and gazed upon the shores of the mysterious Pacific Ocean alongside Ferdinand de Balboa. The African explorer Estevanico helped the De Vaca and Coronado expeditions open up what is now the Southwestern United States for Spain, and Africans accompanied the French Jesuit missionaries as they charted the northern reaches of North America.

In the early 17th century, as the Age of Colonization began in earnest, Africans had begun to come to North America to stay. In 1619, a year before English pilgrims arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, a group of Africans were brought to the Jamestown colony in Virginia as ______________ _____________.

Within __ years, however, this colony of free people was no more, and most of the African immigrants in Virginia had been _____________. Like practically all other Africans in North America, they had been caught up in the ________________ ______ ________--__________________________________________________ ______________________________________________. This new institution would bring about profound changes in society, politics, and everyday life on all four continents, and would shape the African experience in America for centuries to come.

_________ __________ _________ the _____________ ___________

At the dawn of the era of transatlantic slavery, Africa was a vast and diverse land, the home of _______ __________ ____________ and more than 800 languages. The region that would be most powerfully ___________ by the ________ _________ was in _______ __________, along a strip of coast between the Senegal and Congo rivers. This vast expanse of land was marked by a rich and varied culture, having long absorbed influences from Arab North Africa, from European trading posts, and from the cosmopolitan cities of the interior. The inland city of Timbuktu was a major center for scholarship, and the work of its astronomers, mathematicians, and theologians spread throughout West Africa. Several large kingdoms, such as Mali, Songhay, and Benin, held sway over significant stretches of territory, and in the 16th century the capital of Benin was one of the largest cities in the world. In much of the region, though, people lived in small clusters of villages, ruled by _____ _____ or __________, and _________ the _______ and __________ for ______, pooling their labor and resources as a community.

__ ___________ ___________ of _____________

The rise of the ________________ _______ ________ disrupted the _____________ ____ of _____ in West Africa, and over the centuries would extract an immeasurable human toll. Europeans had first made contact with West Africans centuries before, and had long maintained _________ ______ on the coasts. As European colonies in the Americas expanded, though, their governments looked to West Africa for a source of ______ _______ to power their growing farms, mines, and plantations.

Beginning in the ______ __________ with the Spanish, then the Portuguese, French, and Dutch, Europeans began systematically kidnapping and enslaving large numbers of West Africans, and transporting them to the American colonies for sale. In 1702, by the _________ of ________, the British became increasingly involved in the slave trade and were accorded a 30-year contract to send nearly 5,000 African slaves a year to the Spanish colonies in the Western Hemisphere. Soon, countless cargo ships were crossing the Atlantic, carrying shiploads of shackled Africans to the Americas, then bringing raw materials home to Europe. By ______, an average of __________ Africans were _______________ transported across the Atlantic every year. By the time the slave trade reached its peak in the ______ __________, the number was up to ____________ per year.

It is estimated that during the _____ years of the transatlantic slave trade, between ___ million and ___ million Africans were transported to the _____________ as slaves. Of these, more than ____________ were sent to the 13 British colonies and, later, the United States. We may never know a precise number, but current estimates hold that more than ___ million Africans ______ on the journey.

The trade in slave labor fueled an unprecedented era of expansion, innovation, and prosperity across the European world, from London to Amsterdam to Philadelphia. But it ruined the kingdoms and villages of West Africa. Slavery had never been unknown in the region, but the large-scale _____________ and transportation of slaves, as well as the ______________ of those slaves as _____________ __________, were unheard of. ______ broke out as ________ _______ sought to _________ their people from roving bands of slave traders, and villagers retreated behind barricades. But the greatest blow was the loss of its people, and the youngest and strongest men, women, and children-West Africa's future-were taken across the ocean to a harsh life in another land.

__ __________ __ ___________

___________

Most Africans began their journey into ___________ at the _______ of ________ __________. While Europeans owned and operated the slave ships, the work of _______________ new victims was generally left to ______ __________. Bands of slavers would roam the African countryside, preying on ___________ who let their guard down.

It sometimes took several months to transport captives to the coast, and they often were sold and resold to several new owners along the way. Once they reached the coast, some captives were taken to slave forts or compounds, where they waited for a slave vessel to arrive. Many of these fortresses still stand on the coasts of Africa, at places like Ilmina and Goree Island, as ruined monuments to the cruel economy of years past.

Once a ship was ready, the Africans were handed over to their new captors, Europeans and Americans, who would take them on their journey to the Americas.

_____ ____________ ____________

For the __________ ____________ aboard a ________ ______, the voyage to the ______ ________ was a passage of nearly ________________ __________. For most captives, the _____________ from their _______ and ____________ was still fresh, and now they were thrust into a hostile and alien world, at the mercy of people who were like none they had ever seen before. Upon boarding, they were stripped of their ___________, __________, __________, and _______ ________ _______, where they would be forced to ________ for most of the months-long ____________.

The ________ _______ itself was a living nightmare. To the slave traders, these human beings were _______, and slave ships were especially designed to transport ___ ________ _________ __ ___________, with little regard for either their health or their humanity. Slave decks were often only a few feet high, and the African captives were __________ together lying down, side by side, head to foot, or even closer. _________ from ______________, _____________, and ___________ were routine on the slave deck, as were arbitrary __________ and __________ by the ______. The closeness, the filth, and the fear delivered many into madness, and __________ __________ were common. Other ships could smell slavers from far away, and Portuguese sailors called them tumbeiros, or __________ _________.

Those who were not killed by conditions on board were often permanently __________ by ___________ or __________. Many slave captains _______ sick or injured Africans ___________ so that their ________ would be ___________ by ____________.

Though they were shackled, sickened, and _______________, captive Africans frequently _________ ______ against their tormentors. On more than 300 voyages, the captives on the slave deck attempted to ____________ the crew, and in several cases they _____________. In 1839, the victorious Africans on the slave ship ________ even succeeded in sailing the ship into port and, eventually returned home in __________.

______________ in ________________

_______ in a _________ __________

When captive Africans first set foot in North America, they found themselves in the midst of a __________ slave society. During most of the 17th and 18th centuries, __________ was the law in every one of the 13 colonies, North and South alike, and was employed by its most prominent citizens, including many of the founders of the new United States. The _______________ of __________ was provided for in the ______ ________________, and continued to take place on a large scale even after it was made ________ in _______. The slave system was one of the principal engines of the new nation's financial independence, and it grew steadily up to the moment it was abolished by war. In ______ there were fewer that __________ slaves in the United States; in ______ there were more than __ million; on the eve of the _____ _____, nearly __ million.

On ________, most of the new captives were moved into holding pens, separated from their shipmates, and put up for __________. They then faced the challenge of surviving in a society that had declared each of them to be _________ ___________ and that was organized to maintain their _____________ ________. In the eyes of the law and of most non-African Americans, they had no authority to make decisions about their own lives and could be _________, ______, __________, __________, ____________, or _________ at a ___________’s ____. All the most crucial things in the lives of the enslaved African American-from the dignity of their daily labor to the valor of their resistance, from the comforts of family to the pursuit of art, music, and worship-all had to be accomplished in the face of slave society's attempt to deny their _____________.

Enslaved Africans, and the African American slaves that followed them, could be found in all parts of the country, and put their hands to virtually every type of labor in North America. They tended the _________ ________ and _______ ________ of New York and New Jersey; they traveled underground to ______ ______ and lead in the Ohio Valley; they ___________ _________ _______ and worked the _______ in New England; they operated __________ _________ in New York City, _________ in Delaware, and _________ __________ from Florida to Maine. Even in the early 19th century, when the ____________ ________ ____________ _________ was at its peak, enslaved African Americans still plied their own specialized skills and worked at a wide variety of tasks and trades.

Africans also brought the skills and trades of their ___________ to North America, and their expertise shaped the ___________ and ____________ of the continent. West Africans with experience navigating the waterways of their homeland helped open the rivers and canals of the Northwest frontier to boat traffic, and seasoned African _______ ________ were able to apply their skills to ox teams and livestock. Many Africans were deeply familiar with large-scale _______ and ________ ____________, which were completely unknown to European Americans; without the skills of Africans and their descendants, the rice fields of South Carolina and Louisiana might never have existed.

The world that _____________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________.

_______ ___________ _______________

However pervasive slavery was, though, in every colony and in every state there was always a population of __________ ___________ living in __________. Some were ________ _______ or the ______________ of freed slaves, some had _________, some had _________ their own freedom, and some lived in territories or states that had __________ slavery. This population of free African Americans grew steadily for the duration of the slave era. In _______, _________ free African Americans lived in the U.S.; in ______ there were _______; and ___________ by ______.

Freedom was never a ___________ for this group. They had very few _______ ___________, even in ostensibly free states, and were always in __________ of being kidnapped or otherwise returned to slavery. Most lived in urban areas, and despite the often strong opposition of European American workers, free African Americans worked in a number of trades and crafts, including construction, metalworking, and retail trade. The distinguished astronomer, draftsman, and publisher Benjamin Banneker was a free African American, as were the educator Daniel Payne and the novelist William Wells Brown. Many free African Americans formed fraternal organizations, such as the Brown Fellowship Society of South Carolina, for advancement and self-protection, and others worked to found schools and universities for free men and women.

Perhaps most important of all, ______ _________ ____________ were often at the ___________ of the great public crusade of the 19th century: _____________________________________________________________.

_________________ and ________________

Although it was the ______ of the ______ for more than _____ years, American slavery was challenged and resisted every day, by its victims, by its survivors, and by those who found it________ ___________. The long campaign to abolish the trade in human beings was one of the _________ ________ __________ in U.S. history, and its success was the result of decades of organization and agitation by African Americans and their European American _________.

_________________ and _________________

Daily life in a slave workplace was marked by countless acts of everyday resistance. Although their _________ was ________ by the _____, enslaved African Americans used a wide variety of strategies to contest the authority of slaveholders and to assert their right to control their own lives. Slaveholders depended on slaves' labor to ______ their businesses solvent, and slaves often used work slowdowns and absenteeism to negotiate some of the terms of their labor.

Many African Americans defied the slave system by leaving it. ________ attempts were dangerous and uncertain, and slaveholders posted substantial rewards for captured ____________, but every year thousands of slaves fled to free states or territories. On the way, they were aided by slaves on nearby farms and plantations and by networks of free African Americans and European Americans. By _______, an estimated ____________ people had __________ from __________.

The form of resistance most feared by slaveholders, however, was _________ insurrection. Throughout the history of slavery, African captives and enslaved African Americans had taken up arms and _________ back against their captors. In the early 19th century, however, there came a series of armed __________ in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, punctuated by the rebellion led by ______ ___________ in Southampton, Virginia, in which more than 50 European Americans were killed.

Slaveholders were haunted by the possibility of a large-scale ____________, and they publicized lurid accounts of the Turner uprising and other, sometimes fictional, conspiracies in the hopes of increasing public vigilance. In the North, however, their efforts found a much different audience than they expected.

________ for _________________

While enslaved African Americans fought against the strictures of slavery in their daily lives, another battle was taking place in the public sphere.

African Americans had spoken out against slavery since its beginnings, often joined by European Americans, but by the beginning of the 19th century the fight for its nationwide ___________ was reaching a boiling point. The rhetoric of the American Revolution, with its invocation of inalienable rights and universal freedom, had led to heated debate over the access of African Americans to these rights. Most ____________ ________, many of which had not used much slave labor for some time, had ____________ slavery by the 1820s, and the North became the staging ground for newly energized attacks against the slave society of the South.

Former slaves and free African Americans were in the vanguard of the battle for abolition, and they fought on many fronts. They formed local, regional, and national ______________ societies and toured the country relentlessly. In time, a star team of powerful _______ __________ was assembled, to be dispatched to trouble spots at a moment's notice, including ____________ ____________, William Wells Brown, and Isabella Baumfree, better known as ______________ _________. Henry Highland Garnet spoke directly to African Americans still in slavery, calling for dramatic action.

Some African American activists carried on the fight in a less public way, working undercover and planning daring raids to _______ ___________ _________ from kidnappers and _________ mobs. Others traveled deep into hostile territory, guiding fugitives to ___________ through the vast network of sympathetic helpers and hiding places that was known as the ___________________ ______________.

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