American Identity From The Early National Period To The Civil War

Slavery in the United States lasted as a legal institution for more then two centuries. It had its origins with the first English colonization of North America in Virginia in 1607. Twelve million Africans were shipped to the Americas from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Of those, an estimated 645,000 were brought to what is now the United States (Segal 4). Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves. There was a small number of white slaves as well. The majority of slaveholders were in the southern United States, where most slaves were engaged in an efficient machine-like gang system of agriculture, with farms of fifteen or more slaves. Slavery was among the principal issues leading to the HYPERLINK http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War o American Civil War American Civil War. After the HYPERLINK http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_28American_Civil_War29 o Union (American Civil War) Union prevailed in the war, slavery was abolished throughout the United States with the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865. Despite all the horrors and terror of white masters, black people have managed to survive and to become a part of an American culture, keeping own