African-American Migration Experience Summary

Westward expansion resulted in Native Americans losing their native homelands and changing their culture to accommodate teachings from white settlers. Like the south, the West is a region wrapped in myths and stereotypes. The vast land west of the Mississippi River contains remarkable geographic extremes: majestic mountains, roaring rivers, searing deserts, sprawling grasslands, and dense forests. Since the first English settlers arrived at Jamestown in 1607, the story of America has been one of movement westward as more and more Europeans came to our shores, colonists spread further and further into what was called the frontier, which is defined as an area of unsettled land. We know, however, that America was already inhabited by Natives whose ancestors had arrived thousands of years earlier. There the march of settlement and exploitation continued, propelled by a lust for land and a passion for profit. Between 1870 and 1900, Americans settled more land in the West than had been occupied by all Americans up to 1870. Conflicts over land ownership, religion, and culture, combined with broken promises by the U.S. government, moved the Indian

Of the thirteen defining migrations that formed and transformed African America, only the transatlantic slave trade and the domestic slave trades were coerced, the eleven others were voluntary movements of resourceful and creative men and women, risk-takers in an exploitative and hostile environment. Their survival skills, efficient networks, and dynamic culture enabled them to thrive and spread, and to be at the very core of the settlement and development of the Americas. Their hopeful journeys changed not only their world and the fabric of the African Diaspora but also the Western