3 US Black America by Thierry Raguier

BBC web site

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:08:16 UTC

The official beginning in the USA.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:12:25 UTC

3/ The first Black slaves were brought to Virginia in 1619. They were bought to work in tobacco fields.

A difficult life in the USA's southern states.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:15:58 UTC

5/ Life was hard: long days' work in cotton fields and no time to relax. There was always a White man to watch.

Different life-styles ...

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:19:33 UTC

6/ A White master's house in the USA's south ....

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:23:25 UTC

... and a cabin for a slave family. What sort of "house" would you have prefered, if you had lived at that period ?

Slave markets.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:36:06 UTC

4/ In the USA, Black people were sold on markets. Parents and children were separated and sold to different White masters.

An inhuman system: the slave trade.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:46:26 UTC

1/ The slave trade map: a much profitable commerce for Europe over about 250 years, with about 15 million Black people. Liverpool, Britstol, Nantes or La Rochelle were important slave harbours. Europeans imported tobacco, sugar or rice.

The Middle Passage

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:47:40 UTC

2/ Black people were caught (usually by Black people from other groups) on the African west coast. They were taken on board slave ships in horrible conditions. The Middle Passage (= the crossing of the Atlantic) was terrible. Maybe 25 or 30 % died in the crossing.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 09:56:38 UTC

The ideal Plantation life ...

Rosa Parks

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 13:23:53 UTC

This small woman was arrested on December, 1st, 1955 because she sat at the front of a bus. The place was Montgomery, Alabama, in the south of the USA.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 13:27:37 UTC

... and on buses too. Where are people sitting on this photo ?

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 13:36:29 UTC

But in reality, Blacks were not humans, only objects. Bad treatments could happen if they rebelled.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 13:39:25 UTC

In the USA, in the 1960s, there was SEGREGATION: Blacks and White lived together BUT apart at (schools, restaurants ...

The "slave states"

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 13:44:46 UTC

In the slave states (confederate states), slavery existed, because the climate was ok to grow cotton or tobacco.

The Montgomery bus boycott

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 16:14:43 UTC

Martin Luther King heard about Rosa's story. He organised a boycott. Black people didn't go to work by bus. The company lost money and M L King won the fight. Black people could sit where they wanted on buses in Montgomery.

The famous "I have a dream" speech.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 16:15:44 UTC

But segregation was slow to go. M L King made a lot of speeches to convince people. His most famous speech was in Washington, in August, 1963.

The USA in the 21st century.

traguier53 — 2016-02-16 16:38:05 UTC

The USA have a Black president, Barack Obama. Black Americans are famous in sport, the cinema or the song industry. It is fine. But there are more Black people in prison than White people in the US ...

Rosa's bus ...

traguier53 — 2016-03-30 14:05:38 UTC

Would you like to visit the bus where Rosa Parks sat and said "no" ?

2020, a man died because of his skin-colour...

traguier53 — 2024-03-05 08:28:03 UTC

This "murder" went viral (because it was filmed) the world over. A Black American, George Floyd, was strangled live by a White policeman... If Mister Floyd's skin-colour had been white, the situation would very probably have been different ...

Floyd's live video

traguier53 — 2024-03-05 08:47:00 UTC