Would African Americans be here today without slavery, and if so would it be different?

Question

I was reading something that I could not agree or disagree on. It was regarding African Americans. The whole slave ship scene and plantation scenes were pieces of history that America looks down upon. However, the civil war brought us to our senses and we were fighting for the rights of the black people to be slave free. They are free and thriving in America today and have came a long way.

Essentially we fought for the rights of African Americans in the civil war and brought them here to expand in a great country in the beginning of its colonization. If we did not enslave blacks in the beginning of colonization would they be here today? If not would we view them as immigrants instead of Americans?

Racism still exists by both parties. Lets just bring it all to end end through society changes and behaviors.

Answer 1

Very Interesting Question.  I agree that I don't really know how to feel about this.  I think we would definately see Africans as immigrants, but I wonder..would there be as many immigrants from other countries if the Africans had never been brought here?  I think it's possible we would be a big racist country full of all white people with a few acceptions.  You can see how we feel about foreigners now, don't you think that would be worse if there wasn't the added diversity that came with the Africans.  Think about the affect this would have on our culture, rock music was shaped from traditional African songs, the ideas of MLK, Race Riots, etc.  All of these things have become a part of American Culture and I'm not sure what our country would be like without these.

I don't know if there is a way to say this without sounding racist but I really wish racism on both sides would end.  I wish that people really would treat African Americans (and all other races) equally and I wish that minorities would stop assuming that all white people are racist.    

Personally I am a native american woman who has been discriminated against a few times (suprisingly mostly because I'm a woman), but I still try to give everyone the benefit of a clean slate.

Answer 2

The African man had no interest in leaving the country they lived. I doubt they would have been allowed to step foot on this soil based on the white man's view of the black population back then. There would have been no civil war. Our country would not be what it is today.

The population of the African man would be minimal in this country today. There would be no reason for them to leave their homeland as others have that have been persecuted such they had not much left but to immigrate somewhere.

Answer 3

Some may have come, even as indentured servants rather than slaves, and gotten their freedom much sooner.  Certainly had they come willingly, families would not have been torn apart over and over, and we wouldn't have many of the problems we have today.  BUT, there was also Jim Crow after the Civil War, so there is a much longer sordid history.  Many today are thriving, but too many are still in the bottom of society, and we need to address that now and into the future.  

"We" really didn't fight to free slaves in the Civil War, BTW.  We fought to keep the Union together, and freeing the slaves became a collateral activity (thank goodness).  

Without slaves, the south would have engaged in manufacturing much sooner, and the country would probably be richer today for it.

Answer 4

I think African Americans would have been in the United States anyway, and we would view them as immigrants, because that's what they would be, just like any other immigrant group.  We are, after all, a "nation of immigrants."  However, I'm not sure the choice is "immigrants or Americans."  There are still some wrong-headed people who do not see people of color as equal Americans.  That's what's caused so much trouble for so long in this country, and you don't have to go any further than YA to see people who still feel that way now.

Edit:  Gustav, I'd like to clarify what you said just a bit.  The first African slaves were brought to America in 1619 on a Dutch ship, but they were brought to Jamestown, which was an English settlement.

Answer 5

You can thank the Dutch for coming up with the idea to make money off the labors of African slaves. With cash crops of tobacco,indigo,and cotton in the New World,they saw the enormous profits to be made.