Production of these goods was mostly from indentured servants and slaves, meaning it was cheap but ferocious and exploitative. They were able to bring back valuable natural resources and abundant exports to sell in foreign markets. The elite in England was running a very profitable business with their American colonies. In the seventeenth century, ships leaving Liverpool transported an estimated 1.5 million enslaved African people to the Americas. If you want to save this summary for later, download the free PDF and read it whenever you want.ĭownload PDF Lesson 1: Anti-Black laws slowly entrenched slavery into society. Let’s see just how much Four Hundred Souls can teach us! Today, the Black Lives Matter movement continues the struggle for equality.Slavery took off after the American Revolution.The onslaught of slavery began as a slow process in which governments instituted a series of anti-Black laws.Here are just 3 of the many eye-opening lessons I got from this book: Drawing on the reflections of ninety authors, they bring an inspiring story of struggle, courage, and hope among the oppressed. Blain give a fresh, insightful retelling of the history of Blacks in America. In Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, authors Ibram X. This is just one example of African Americans’ complex and contested history, a history spanning 400 years. Even though they made history as the first Black residents of what would one day be the United States of America. Unlike the Pilgrims we learned about in school, these people don’t have names or stories. These captive people were sold as enslaved workers to Virginia’s colonists. Onboard was an English crew transporting around 24 Angola captives. These Pilgrim passengers’ names went down in history, and we still acknowledge their important role in shaping American history today.īut did you know there was another English ship that docked in Virginia just before that equally shaped the course of American History? It was the White Lion.

Most American students can tell you the story of how the Pilgrims, some of the first non-native American settlers, arrived in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.

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