Many people who have come to United States have come of their own accord seeking a freedom of some sort. However, that is not true of the descendants of most African-Americans. When many Africans first came to this land, they did so as slaves.

When the Europeans first landed in Africa, the leaders of some indigenous groups saw it as an opportunity to gain wealth. They would raid other villages and kidnap people or use war captives to exchange for weapons, ammunition, metal, liquor, trinkets, and cloth. The Europeans would buy only the youngest and strongest slaves because the journey across the ocean was so long and hard that only the youngest and the strongest would have the chance of surviving.

When slaves were transported to be sold in America they were packed in a ship and only given the bare necessities to survive, which most times was not enough. Many could not and did not survive the journey over.

Slaves from Africa became part of what is known as "The Triangle Trade." Ships would leave England with merchandise and touch the West Coast of Africa where they would trade their merchandise for African blacks. They would then proceed to the West Indies or English colonies where they would trade their slaves for agricultural products and merchandise to take back to England, thus completing the triangle.

(Background information gathered from Grolier Encyclopedia on CD-Rom 1994 version)