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African American Letter to a Friend

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African American Letter to a Friend

African American Letter to a Friend
Dear Sonya, May 24, 2012 It is amazing everything that I have learned about my heritage and what my ancestors have gone through to achieve what we have today. The past week I have spent visiting my grandparents in Alabama who have done research and found out all about where we come from as a family. Also looking at what my ancestors went through to get to where we are today has taught me to be so appreciative to what I have. Researching my family history has shown me everything that my race has gone through in American history. The first day my grandmother showed me how far back they have traced my family history. It starts with the first of the slaves that were brought over to America, from Africa, in 1619. They were brought over to Jamestown, Virginia as indentured servants that were released after a certain period of time. Slavery was not legal until 1641 in Massachusetts, and then other states just followed them. This was when states also made it legal to sell and trade slaves from one owner to the next, even the women and children. By the 1700’s in the south about 25% or more of the population was slaves versus the north where there was only about 2% of the population was slaves. This is so sad that my ancestors were treated like objects and not human beings, how could people be so mean? The next day my grandparents explained to me about the African slaves during the American Revolutionary War. During the beginning of the Revolutionary War the Declaration of Independence was writing which some parts did support slavery. The Second Continental Congress then contemplated freeing the slaves and put out petitions to free them but the petitions were ignored. They did get the parts that promoted slavery removed from the Declaration of Independence. Freed slaves were

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