African American History made a huge impact on American history. The Harlem Renaissance began in 1920 which is five years after Billie Holiday was born. African Americans were brought into and held captive in the United States from 1555 to 1865. During this time African Americans and slaves were called colored and negro but as of today they are called black or african american. They are no longer labeled as a person of color because there are other non-white ethnic groups.
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The number of slaves being imported directly from Africa became very large from the 1660’s to 1700’s and onward. All of the slaves coming from the West Indies were too small of numbers to reach the large requirement number because of a large demand. The american slave buyers were then very conflicted because they no longer wanted slaves from the West Indies because of the low count but the only other way to get more slaves was too expensive. Eventually the British Crown removed Royal Monopolies and put a relaxation on colonial tax laws which made it easier again for the American slave buyers to get slaves from Africa again with them being healthy, young, and cheap again. The ability to buy slaves from Africa and have them shipped to America was banned in 1808, but people still found ways to illegally ship them to America until 1859. By 1830 there were already 319,000 free blacks.
While the majority of free blacks lived in poverty, some were able to establish successful businesses that benefitted the black community. Racial Discrimination, meant that african americans has almost no rights compared to whites, including not being able to work at the same business. James Forten was a man that created a black community so they had somewhere to work as lawyers and doctors, which was labeled as the middle class of blacks. Eventually the black community managed to establish schools since black children were banned from entering and attending other public schools.
When Abraham Lincoln was The President he issued an executive order called the Emancipation Proclamation, changed the legal status of three million african americans from a slave to being free in 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation was created and inspired because of a slave that escaped and ran away. The black community continued to have the intentions to fight slavery and get rid of it.
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Before black history month began it was called Negro History Week in 1926 created by Carter G. Woodson. Later in 1976 it was changed into Black History Month in February in honor of Abraham Lincoln’s and Fredrick Douglass’ birthday. Soon after, a lot of things changed such as, African Americans get treated more equally by being elected in public office, senate, and as lawyers. African americans gained more and more freedom throughout time but unfortunately they had to fight to get treated equally like others even though they are people too and they should’ve been treated equally from the beginning. Billie Holiday was lucky enough that slavery had already ended by the time she was born.