This is a StoryMap about the forced migration that occurred during the slave trade in colonial times. Before the arrival of Africans to the colonies, Native Americans were used as slaves. However, this did not carry on for long because the Native Americans perished from the diseases that the Europeans brought over to America. This led the colonists to turn to Africans, who had already been exposed to these diseases because of their European colonization. During this time, Africans were kidnapped and involuntarily brought across the Atlantic Ocean to either North or South America (Brazil), or the Caribbean. In all of these places, slaves were forced to work in agricultural fields such as on cotton or sugar plantations. In South America, slaves had somewhat better conditions, as they could be freed from slavery if they were able to pay their master. However, in North America and the Caribbean, slaves faced much more violence and were stripped of all human rights, including the ability to be freed from slavery. They worked long days filled with violence and brutality from their slave masters. This was the time when the ideology that one race could be superior to another came about.

Slavery has managed to have a lingering effect on society today, as the idea of racism is still quite prevalent in throughout our community. Slavery created the basis of thinking that whites are the superior race to blacks, or anyone else. This basis of thinking still exists today and can be illuminated in many aspects of society including police brutality and criminal justice, employment, etc. Though slavery has been abolished in America for over a hundred years, we still see the repercussions of it throughout our community.

The author of this StoryMap is a freshman student at Gettysburg College originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is interested in majoring in Political Science. She chose to research the forced migration of the slave trade because it is often overlooked as a major migration that has continued to have an affect on society today.