New societies, new peoples, and new communities usually originate in acts of migration. They choose a new destination and sever their ties with their traditional community or society as they set out in search of new opportunities, new challenges, new lives, and new life worlds. Most societies in human history have a migration narrative in their stories of origin. All communities in American society trace their origins in the United States to one or more migration experiences.
African Americans, perhaps more than any other population, have been shaped by migrations. Their culture and history are the results of black peoples' various movements, coerced and voluntarily. Theirs is the story of men and women who were forcibly taken from Africa; of enslaved people moved from the southeastern coast of the United States to the Deep South; of "fugitives" walking to freedom across the country.
The transatlantic slave trade is usually considered the primary means of how the African presence made it to the United States. While most people of African descent in the United States can trace their ancestry back to the slave trade, it is centuries of additional, largely voluntary migrations that have shaped the African-American presence in the nation.
African Americans, perhaps more than any other population, have been shaped by migrations. Their culture and history are the results of black peoples' various movements, coerced and voluntarily. Theirs is the story of men and women who were forcibly taken from Africa; of enslaved people moved from the southeastern coast of the United States to the Deep South; of "fugitives" walking to freedom across the country.
The transatlantic slave trade is usually considered the primary means of how the African presence made it to the United States. While most people of African descent in the United States can trace their ancestry back to the slave trade, it is centuries of additional, largely voluntary migrations that have shaped the African-American presence in the nation.