Assignment Journal of a Subordinate Group

Assignment Journal of a Subordinate Group

  • Submitted By: tnlove
  • Date Submitted: 02/02/2009 1:28 PM
  • Category: Social Issues
  • Words: 1135
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 2873

Journal Assignment
Your Name
Axia College University of Phoenix
ETH/125 Cultural Diversity
Instructors Name
February 18, 2007

How did I come to be part of a subordinate group in the United States of America? Or more accurately, how did I come to be a part of two separate very much intertwined subordinate groups in the US? Very simply, I was born to them. As a Black woman in the US, being subordinate is automatic.
The African American population in the US today, came to be by involuntary migration. We were brought here from Africa as slaves. The majority of us came from Bight of Biafra (Nigeria) and Central and Southeast Africa (Cameroon- N.Angola). We were also brought from other African countries such as Windward Coast (Ivory Coast), Gold Coast (Ghana), Bight of Benin (Nigeria), Senegambia and Sierra Leone (Bandele, K., n.d.). We were bought and sold like cattle.
Black people were not allowed to read, use their own language, or worship in their religion. We were owned and controlled by our White slave owners. We were whipped and beaten into submission. Our families were separated to keep us from forming too close of a bond with anyone. On any given plantation slaves were unable to communicate effectively due to different dialects. Many of the slaves came from different countries in Africa and spoke entirely different languages. Until the year 1865 slavery was a way of life for most Black people.
On January 1, 1863 black people were freed from slavery by the Emancipation Proclamation. On June 19, 1865, Juneteenth, the last of slaves finally found out that they were free. It took that long for the Union Army to reach Galveston, Texas, the last of the slaves in the US were then set free.
Black people were not openly accepted as equal and free people by the dominant white society. Many Black people went from slavery to sharecropping, another word for debt-bondage, which was actually another form of slavery. Although...

Similar Essays