Why do most blacks assume their ancestors were apart of slavery?

Question

i used to be that way too only because i thought i was supposed to, until my child development teacher told me that, just because im part black doesnt mean im from africa..that i could be jamaican or something else.

which then brought me to the question, with that being possible, doesnt that mean that a black person's family line in america could have started after slavery ended?

between 1890 and 1910 there was a major immigration craze...

i mean not all blacks assume they are descendants of slaves but many do, and many do not have some sort of back up for it....like heirlooms or land or whatever...

so why do some blacks assume that?

Answer 1

Yes your family could be from other countries but Black immigration is fairly recent.  Your grand parents or parents grand parents would be an immigrant and you would most likely know your lineage.  If you don't know your lineage you probably go back farther than that and the only way your ancestors got here was a slavery boat.

Answer 2

Because there is a strong possibility and not just blacks.

Answer 3

Black people were taken from Africa to be used as slaves in the Caribbean.  This became practised after it was illegal to use convicts from Britain to work on the plantations.  Fortunately for the Caribbean slave descendants they were give their Caribbean island although many still live in poverty today.  The dates you mention 1890 and 1910, I think you will find that only white immigrants were welcomed into the US at that time.  Therefore it is fair to say that America's black population were descended from slaves.  Bear in mind also that there were slaves in Europe as well (not African ones).

Answer 4

And how do you think Black people got to Jamaica in the first place? Did they take a commercial jet?

Answer 5

Some blacks are racists ......so they use the slavery card to justify the chip on the shoulder,rather than to say I don't like whites. Jamacia, Africa.......France,Sweeden, China etc. everyone has decendents. Slavery is history!!!!

Answer 6

Because it's useful to be able to claim slavery as a grievance.  Or maybe because the memory of slavery has become such a part of the black cultural identity that the idea some black people are not descended from slaves seems absurd.

Lots of black people also assume that most white people are the descendants of rich white slave owners, though probably 3/4 of white people have no slave-owning ancestors.

Answer 7

Because, if they say their family is from slavery it makes people feel bad---and they get more then most.

Of course slavery was a bad thing---but, they didn't go through it. Shouldn't I get something for how my Italian great grandparents were treated during that time?

Answer 8

My distance realations were white bond slaves from England in the 1700's does that mean Iam apart of slavery? When you assume something what does it cause?

Answer 9

They still have remnants of the Masser's bloodline in them. That proves descendency from slaves and masters.

Answer 10

because not alot of people know there specific family history... IDK? Why does it matter what one person says anyways because there are 28347908329 other people who support black people's free will... People are people and there isnt really nothing in the past that can be changed.

Answer 11

"No society can grow unless it abuses the labors of another".

Frederick Douglass

Come on folks. Slavery is part of human history. One day we will eventually go to another planet,meet the original inhabitants of that planet and thinking we're doing them a favor,enslave them too. As humans it's part of our nature to bring something to the brink of destruction before we learn to appreciate it.

It's a shame that many people of African - American descent play that race card and the "my family  members were slaves" B.S.. Look at the Jews. They have a history of being the most persecuted people on Earth and I don't see them playing the race card or looking for handouts from Uncle Sam.

Why? Because they've got their sh** together and have moved on as a culture.

Answer 12

The number of free blacks who immigrated to the New World before the end of WWII was basically zero.  Most of the million or more were brought as slaves.

Tell your child development teacher that Jamaican blacks are almost all descended from slaves ... as are Brazilian, Cuban, and all the others. Slavery was popular!

The big immigration boom in 1890-1910 was from Europe, not Africa.

If you can trace your family in the USA back to 1900, the chances are almost 100% that any black ancestors were slaves or descended from slaves.

Answer 13

Its a sympathy thing there grandparents never had a chance, the Maltese everyone was an hero with a bullet hole in the wall to prove it, the french every family was in the resistance, you get the picture, if it's good for sympathy or pride they claim it true or not, don't forget that hundreds of Germans became Jews after the war to get away with war crimes, it's simple dishonesty, cashing in on others heroism and bravery, hoping to profit not necessarily financially from others misfortune.

Answer 14

Because a) they enjoy being victims, or b) they know that, in a certain segment of society, claiming to be descended from slaves is an automatic guilt-producer.   Besides, you wouldn't be entitled to reparations if you great-great-grandpappy wasn't a slave!  (I cannot BELIEVE there are still some that believe the  U.S. owes reparations to descendents of slaves . . . )

Answer 15

well that immigration phase you refer to was pretty much all Eastern European, Irish and Italian and the numbers were so great that the majority of white Americans alive today are descendants of those immigrants but the majority of African Americans alive today are descendants of slaves. It is difficult for people to trace lineage when no birth records were kept.

heirlooms? land? um yeah slaves didn't have much of that when their freedom was granted.