African Americans

There was one group of immigrants came to North America unwillingly. These wereAfricans, 500,000 of whom were brought over as slaves from 1619 until 1808, when slave

trade became illegal. The practice of owning slaves and their descendants continued, however, mostly in the agrarian US South, where many labourers were needed to work

the fields. The process of ending slavery was long and tough. On January 1, 1863, midway through the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation,

which abolished slavery in those states that had seceded. Slavery was abolished throughout the United States with the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the US Constitution in 1865.

Even after the end of slavery, however, American blacks were hampered by segregation and inferior education. In search of opportunity, African Americans formed an internal wave of immigration, moving from the rural South to the urban North. But many urban blacks were unable to find work; by law and custom they lived apart from whites,