African American history forms part of American history that looks at black American ethnic groups in the United States of America. Most African American are descendants of African who were forcibly held captive in the United States from 1555 to 1865 ( Omi, 2014) . Apart from African, blacks from the Caribbean whose ancestors moved to the United States of America were traditionally considered as African-Americans. These blacks have been known by various names which included colored and Negro which are currently known as African American and black. Most of the blacks in America are descended from the African who was bought directly from Africa as slaves. More so, these slaves were picked in African wars and transported in the Atlantic slave trade. They are descended from several ethnic groups which include central Africa and mostly from western Africa. The major ethnic groups that the enslaved African belonged are Hausa, Fon, Yoruba, and Macau.
As discussed earlier, many black Americans were as a result of slave trade where many were bought as slaves. There are several findings that can be used to discuss the immigration history of black Americans. One of the findings is that black immigrants’ population has more than quadrupled since 1980. Evidently, only 800,000 blacks were foreign-born in 1980 ( Omi, 2014) . The number has increased to 3.8 million in 2013 and these black immigrants are making up the large share of the overall black population. In addition, the number of black Americans immigrants has grown rapidly from 2000 to 2013. Evidently, the immigrants increased by 137% from 570,000 to 1.4 million. From the overall increase, Africans make up 36% which is an increase from 24%. Additionally, 50% of the black Americans in the United States were born in the Caribbean where Jamaica and Haiti were the largest birthplaces and accounted for 18% and 15% of the black Americans (Greenfield, 2014) . Nevertheless, when compared with the United States immigrants overall, foreign-born blacks are less likely to be in the United States illegally. In 2012, about 575,000 black immigrants were living in the United States illegally. Evidently, 16% of black Americans were in the United States illegally. By comparison, 25% of immigrants have unauthorized status.
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Black Americans had good contact with other ethnic groups. These ethnic groups included the white Americans, Asian American and indigenous. Of all the ethnic groups white Americans are the largest in the United States ( Morawska, 2014) . Typically, white Americans had many upper government officials and all offices were full of white Americans. Due to this fact, black Americans always needed the help of white American in accessing the offices. More so, black Americans and Hispanic Americans are similar, although they came from different countries the United States was not their original birthplace (Greenfield, 2014) . As a result, they interacted and had good interactions as they had difficult experiences getting jobs in the United States of America. Unemployment led to these ethnic groups growing in communities which were full of poverty and lack of good health facilities. All ethnic groups who had come from another country therefore, had to have close contacts with one another in order to find the solution to the increasing poverty and lack of social services.
In the late 20th century, there were improved racial interactions and ethnic groups. These interactions were in assimilation and pluralism. In the 1950s, 4% of Americans endorsed intermarriages. In the early 21st century, among the married couples seven in ten has chosen a partner from a different ethnicity. Although African Americans are less to marry, in 2013 the percent of black American who married outside was 13% (Morawska, 2014) . Also, pluralism helped black American to remain with their culture and tradition and wanted the have marriages between themselves, assimilation helped this ethnic group to merge with other ethnic groups and the results are increased intermarriages between black Americans and other ethnic groups in the United States of America.
Black Americans had several conflicts with other ethnic groups. One of the conflicts was the economic well-being of Americans. While researchers continue to debate on the impacts of immigration on black Americans, white Americans certainly believe that high-level immigration has negatively impacted to their economic well-being. Additionally, there were conflicts between black Americans and Latina for group position, status, and political power. Similarly, there was a conflict between the white Americans were steadily rising immigrant’s populations would continue to change their racial complexion in the United States of America (Omi, 2014) . Besides, there were education conflicts between black Americans and other ethnic groups. This is because students are forced to select their sides as an identity and its created identity problems. Through this black American academic performance is affected negatively thus causing education conflicts.
An example of a myth of black Americans is that slave communities were clearly divided into house Negroes who led easy lives and field Negroes who bore the brunt of slavery’s brutality. This is a myth because from Frazier’s conclusion, on the interest in the origin of class division in black Americans society, it was found that there were no specific classes among the enslaved black Americans (Morawska, 2014) . Typically, women worked in houses and men worked in tanners and blacksmith and therefore, it is impossible to abandon this myth.
Black American is one of the ethnic groups in the United States America. The existence of this ethnic group in the United States was through immigration and through the slave trade. Black Americans had close interaction and contact with other ethnic groups as they experienced difficulty in getting jobs. Similarly, black Americans had several conflicts between other ethnic groups. These conflicts include education and the power conflicts. Conclusively, the history of black Americans in the United States is as a result of the slave trade.
References
Greenfield, P. M. (2014). Cross-cultural roots of minority child development : Psychology Press.
Morawska, E. (2014). Immigrant transnationalism and assimilation: a variety of combinations and the analytic strategy it suggests. In Toward assimilation and citizenship: Immigrants in liberal nation-states (pp. 133-176). Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Omi, M., & Winant, H. (2014). Racial formation in the United States : Routledge.
