PAGE 6. AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY

In music class, we are studying African-American music. We will listen work songs, spirituals, blues, ragtime and jazz. To understand them we have to know the terrible history of African-American people.
From 1500 to 1800 a lot of African people were kidnapped and forced to be slaves. African slaves were sold in American countries like Cuba, Jamaica, Brazil, and United States.

Slaves were obligated to work in the worst hobs, mainly in the cotton and sugar fields. They were treated like animals, how if they were not human beings. African slaves had to forget their names, their religions and their culture.

During the 19 century, slavery was forbidden in American countries. In United States, Abraham Lincoln was the president that freed the slaves. From then, African-American are free.

But they did not have the same rights, and suffered episodes of racism. It was necessary the fight of more people, like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King, to realise the civil equality