African Diaspora in the Americas

Diaspora has been recognized as a global phenomena in the history of human civilization. The African Diaspora refers to the African communities who have migrated to the America, Europe, Asia, Middle East and some other places around the world. Initially the term has been referred to the native Africans from West and Central Africa who became enslaved and were shipped to America through the Atlantic Slave Trade. Gradually the term also refers to the most recent emigration from Africa. Modeled after the concept of Jewish diaspora, the term African Diaspora was coined during the 1990s and entered the common tongue during the 2000s. From 1980s to 2009 the African population in USA grew from 200,000 to 1.5 million almost. It is important to know about the size of the African population, geographic distribution, legal status, socioeconomic situation, since it's an important event in the global history. www.assignmenthelp.net is ready to offer its online help regarding the History assignment, especially with Assignment on African Diaspora in the Americas. The site provides sample assignment too for the students.

The African diaspora refers to the communities throughout the world that are descended from the historic movement of peoples from Africa — predominantly to the Americas, Europe and the Middle East, among other areas around the globe. The term has been historically applied in particular to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were enslaved and shipped to the Americas by way of the Atlantic slave trade, with the largest population in the USA (see African-American) among others. With regard to all historic migrations (forced and voluntary), the African Union defined the African diaspora as " people of African origin living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union." Its constitutive act declares that it shall "invite and encourage the full participation of the African diaspora as an important part of our continent, in the building of the African Union."Several migration waves to the Americas, as well as relocations within the Americas, have brought people of African descent to North America. According to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the first African populations came to North America in the 16th century via Mexico and the Caribbean to the Spanish colonies of Florida, Texas and other parts of the South. Out of the 12 million people from Africa who were shipped to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade, 645,000 were shipped to the British colonies on the North American mainland and the United States.

In 2000, African Americans comprised 12.1 percent of the total population in the United States, constituting the largest racial minority group. The African-American population is concentrated in the southern states and urban areas. In the establishment of the African diaspora, the transatlantic slave trade is often considered the defining element, but people of African descent have engaged in eleven other migration movements involving North America since the 16th century, many being voluntary migrations, although undertaken in exploitative and hostile environments. In the 1860s, people from sub-Saharan Africa, mainly from West Africa and the Cape Verde Islands, started to arrive in a voluntary immigration wave to seek employment as whalers in Massachusetts. This migration continued until restrictive laws were enacted in 1921 that in effect closed the door on non-Europeans. By that time, men of African ancestry were already a majority in New England’s whaling industry, with African Americans working as sailors, blacksmiths, shipbuilders, officers and owners. The internationalism of whaling crews, including the character Daggoo, an African harpooneer, is recorded in the 1851 novel Moby Dick. They eventually took their trade to California.