history / slavery

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Biography

Bessie Smith was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a 15 of April 1894. She was an Afro- American famous singer of the “Blues” era. The most popular of the 1920’s and the 1930’s. She had a power which identified her as the “Singer who projected the sheer volume and power.”

 She was daughter of Laura and William Smith. Both of her parents died when she was young, and her sister Viola was in charge of her and the rest of her brothers. She began earning money by performing a duet with her brother in the streets, she sang and dance. Her brother Andrew played the guitar with her.

By 1920’s she started with a musical that made its way to Broadway, she spent a lot time in Georgia’s 81 theatre, performing in black theatres in the East Coast.

A women called Ma Rainey, that was considered the firt Blues singer of the time helped Bessie with her singing, and in developing her stage presence. Smith started to form her own act by 1913. Time by time she went increasing in her popularity and becoming more famous in her career.

She was said to be the “Empress of the Blues” and was respected for being strong and independent.  Later on she was in Georgia she moved to Philadelphia were she met and fell in love with Jack Gee, a security guard whom she married in 1923. The marriage did not succeed, there was infidelity between both. During the marriage she beacme the biggest headliner on the black Theatre Owners Booking Association (T.O.B.A) circuit. She made lots of money doing that. Later on she ended the marriage but she never put a legal divorce.

Her career was cut off by the combination of the Great Depression but later she appeared in a Broadway flop called Pansy.

On the 26th of September 1947 Smith suffered a car accident that took her to the Clarksdale’s Afro-American Hospital were her arm was amputated, but she died that morning

What has she done?

Bessie Smith has given black people more popularity in the sense of music. She was admired by black and whites. She developed black peoples culture just to show that they can have their own music and that blacks are able to do more than the world thinks. She was be able represent in singing and dancing her black race all over the world.

Is these related to the course?

Yes, although she was American she obviously had African past. One member of her family came as a slave to work in America and we have studied all the slavery and the life of black people in America. How they were discriminated and judge because of their skin colour, and how they overcame in their day a day life’s.

How have she faced the changes?

Bessie Smith was a member of a poor family that to be able to earn money she and her brother started to sing in the street. They were seen as less before segregation occured. After that, they (some) felt free to do what ever they liked to. She developed her career and became one of the best of that time, she felt free to do that than before segregation.

Aforo- American

¨Famous people¨

Emmett L.Ashford°

Emmet Littleton Ashford  nicknamed ¨Ash¨ was born in  Los Angeles California in November 23, 1914  and died in March 1, 1980 . He was  the the first African American umpire in Major League Baseball, working in the American League from 1966 to 1970.

He went on to umpire in the Pacific Coast League for many years before being hired by the American League in 1961, and on April 1, 1966 he became the first black Major League umpire. He was an outfield umpire for the 1967 All-Star game, and later worked in the 1970 World Series. He remained an umpire until mandatory retirement in 1970. The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also popularly known as the Midsummer Classic, is an annual exhibition baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by fan vote for the position players and by the manager for pitchers. … The 1970 World Series was between the Cincinnati Reds and the Baltimore Orioles, with the Orioles winning in five games. …

He brought a new style to being an umpire. He dressed impeccably, wore jewelry, including flashy cuff links, and exaggerated his calls with gestures. While some observers believed that his race prevented him from working in the majors earlier than he did, others maintained that his flashy style actually delayed his major league debut due to general disdain for umpires to draw attention to themselves. Jewelry (the American spelling; spelled jewerley in Commonwealth English) consists of ornamental devices worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. …

Ashford was honored by a bunch of kids in Washington Heights, a neighborhood in New York City, in the late 1960’s, when one of them, Charlie Friedman, took the nickname “Emmett”, because of Friedman’s spirited umpiring calls in the schoolyard. The honor was extended to the Slater family cat Charlie (Brown), who by extension was also nicknamed “Emmett”.

What  have he done ?

1966 he became the first black Major League umpire. He brought a new style to being an umpire. He dressed impeccably, wore jewelry, including flashy cuff links, and exaggerated his calls with gestures. While some observers believed that his race prevented him from working in the majors earlier than he did, others maintained that his flashy style actually delayed his major league debut due to general disdain for umpires to draw attention to themselves.

Is this related to the course ?

In part this is related! Like he was a African American a °negro°  he did changes which changed blacks life to better.

How have he faced  the changes?

He faced the changes really good he didn’t have that much problems since he became a baseball player . He was  so good he went to the league  where he became famous.

Wesley snipes is a famous actor andh is real name is Wesley Trent Snipes, He wasborn on the 31 of July 1962 in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. His Occupation are to learn Martial Arts, Doing Movies. He had to wifes one of them was April Duboise that was from (1985-1990) and the other one was Nikki Park that he is with Nikki Park sins 2003-and they  still are in love. Wesley Snipes had been training matial arts seens when he was 12 years old. In 2008 Wesley Snipes was bad with all his taxes and in April 24 he was sentenced for 3 years in prison, but on May 22 the court ruled the Wesley Snipes remained free ontil his appeal has been considered. 

In September 4 of 1981 Houston, Texas welcomed a little baby, named Beyoncé Giselle Knowles, Without knowing that she was going to be, one of the most famous R&B singer of the next millenium.

Beyoncé is indeed an afro american women but hasn’t done nothing special for black community. 

The far that I could get in Beyoncé family origins was her grandmother’s Agnes Deeauen parents Eugen and Adelia Deeauen that were a mulattos burn in Louisiana 

MICHAEL JORDAN

BIOGRAPHY

Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born on February 17 1963 in Brooklyn, New York. He and his family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when Michael was very young. His mother and father did a very good job, they taught him to work hard and not to be tempted by street life. When he was in school, he loved sports, especially basketball but failed to make his own high school basketball team, he continued practicing and never gave up and next year he made the team.

After high school he accepted a basketball scholarship where he played under head coach Dean Smith.

In Jordan’s first season, he was named Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year for 1982.

When Jordan was drafted by the Chicago Bulls they were a losing team, drawing but Jordan quickly turned that around. In his first season he was named to the All-Star team and was later honored as the league’s Rookie of the Year.

A broken foot sidelined Jordan for 64 games during the 1985–86 season, but he

returned to score 49 points against the Boston Celtics in the first game of the playoffs and 63 in the second game. The 1986–87 season was again one of individual successes, and Jordan started in the All-Star game after receiving a record 1.5 million votes. He became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain (1936–1999) to score 3,000 points in a single season. He enjoyed personal success, but Chicago did not advance beyond the first round of the playoffs until 1988. Jordan concentrated on improving his other basketball skills, and in 1988 he was named Defensive Player of the Year. He was also named the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) and became the first player to lead the league in both scoring and steals. He was again named MVP in that year’s All-Star game.

Captured

 Dear diary

I can’t really remember what day it was, I used to live at the east of Senegal, an African country, my parents were working and I was left alone, my age was 11. I was in front of my little piece of land  ( I don’t say house because it wasn’t really that) playing  with my skiny unnamed dog. My piece of land was like at 3 Km away from the coast. I was playing throwing the ball with him( a leaf ball). When I was about to throw it for the last time I saw like a gorilla pass through the forest trees. My heart began to beat faster and faster, and fear began dominating me, when in front of me were two welled dressed men and one women, they tied me up and stuffed me into a sac. They took me to the coast and there without knowing why I was sold to a white person. The first thing that impressed me when I got there was a ship.

Taken on board

Without knowing what was happenig I was taken on board and handled roughly by the crew to see If I was healthy and in good conditions. All the crew and people that were there were different to us, different skin colour, different language. I felt like in another world, strange and missed my parents. Inside the ship there were other Africans suffering, chained and sophocated and some of them almost fainting. White people were strange, tall and red haired, when I saw them I felt like at the bottom of the chain, small and poor. They took me to the deck and leaved me with the other black people, all abandoned. 

The journey

From that moment on I knew I was never returning home, seeing my family, my unnamed dog and my ball made of leaves. I was put under the deck with hundreds of more black people, I couldn`t breath or move, streching or turning myself was impossible, I was sophocated. People were pushing and pulling me, squeezing me. There was a awful stink, the worst I`ve smelled in my life, we were all sweating. I wanted to cry but I didn`t know why I couldn`t, the only thing I wished for me was to die. I spent months without looking at the bright sun rays, the light blue sky, and the cold drops of rain. When I wanted some food white men chained me and flogged me like if I was his toy. White men were watching us, specially the ones that were close to the sea water because the mayority of us although we couldn’t even swim, we wanted to jump to the sea . I was hungry and thirsty and thought I was going to die. I was asking this question to myself where did the white people wanted to take us and for what? That night when I was triying to sleep, I asked that same question to a person of my country, he said we would be working for white people in plantations at America, as slaves… My life would change totally, from being a free person and with a family to working in another continent for white people. There were hundreds of slaves in the ship, and not so many space for us to sleep. We were put like in little rooms with floors in it. One beside, above and under the other one all trapped and uncomfortable. They kept us chained all the journey. 

Sanitation 

Sanitation was horrible, there were no bathrooms or toilets were we could go. We did in big tubes, all of us, that was also part of the stink. Some of us died because of that. Sometimes  children like me accidentally fell into the tubes. That happen to me one time, I fell into one and I wasn’t so nice, other slaves were laughing at me. Because of that there were many  diseases in the area.

Deaths and diseases during the journey

I have to be honest..I was so lucky of not dying during the journey. A lot of slaves died because of diseases inside the ship, they stinked and owners didn’t even notice until they went to see us. They found the dead body and threw it to the ocean, as if nothing had happened. I have to say I sometimes get little and short diseases like flu and others, but nothing serious at all.

The arrival  

After months of journey the ship finally arrived in America in the West Indies, It was strange. I went to a ugly place called a slave market were I was sold with another group of people to $80  to a white skin coloured owner (I was sold to that price because of my age). I saw families being split up, sent to North and South America. But luckily I stayed in the West Indies. They treated me so bad as well as others, they put me a new name, Ashley, I was unhappy. They changed my life, my way of living, my tarditions and my name. From that day on, nothing would be the same, my life as a slave had began…

Good morning teacher and students, today I am going to talk you about slavery, should it be abolished?

Just imagine, how could you be the owner of someone inferior economically and in all the cases than you? I mean there is no specific reason about that. The only people adults are owners from are their daughters and sons! And that’s all…

Well today I am going to discuss that with you, should slavery be abolished? That’s a question you need to ask yourself right now and think about. Let me give you some clues…

Open your imagination, imagine you are whipped, branded, maimed, and mutilated by a tall white person… You had been kidnapped in your home in Africa, taken to a ship, in the ship you were with other hundreds of slaves more. You were sophocated, you couldn’t move, the smell there was nasty!  After all that horrific journey you arrived in a continent called America which you were seen as an animal and sold to another white person that takes you to their plantation with other slaves, and then you realize that your life as a possession for someone has began.

Are you imagining? How do you feel? How does it feel being someone’s possession? Good I don’t think so…

So, we are here to stop that, stop slavery, stop discrimination and stop having black people as a human toy. What I am going to say right now is something you need to remember today and for the rest of your life.

Black people are just the same as us; they have the same 2 legs, 2 arms, 1 head, 2 eyes, 1 mouth etc. The only thing they have different but that doesn’t really matter is their aspect and skin colour. But that’s it!

They live in the same world as we do and are sons of God as all of us in here. We have to respect others aspect, economic situation, skin colour , continent and country. They also have feelings and life; they have the right to have the same right as any people in the world. Why to see them as aliens from another planet? Well some people are not used to see black persons so they discriminate them. What’s the point of having people physically stronger than you working for your plantation? Slave traders think that only to win more money, but selling products and win money without you but some slaves doing the work sounds a bit unfair.

We need to treat them as equals give them an equal education, an equal opportunity of jobs just to see what they are able to do.

How would you feel if someone takes you to another continent to work for them without receiving a salary? We don’t need to think that black people only because they are black are less than us and then take them to work for you and treat them is if they were nothing!

You know quiet often here in you see someone laughing or discriminating a black person because they say they are slaves and they had been much suffered people. Skin colour doesn’t say anything about the person.In conclusion, black people weren’t born slaves, they became slaves by force of other white people, it isn’t their fault to be treated like that, they kidnapped them! There was nothing they could do or say. And if they cried or did something that didn’t made happy the slave trader they were constantly flogged and mutilated. We are all humans, we all live in the same world. Nobody in the whole wide world is the same; there are white people, black people, Chinese, Arabians, Indians etc. The world is our community, why should we take advantage of others?

Thank you

Approximately 51 slaves arrived to La Habana, Cuba after a horrific journey from Africa to the West Indies. There, they were sold to two Spaniards, José Ruiz and Pedro Montes, that took them in a ship called La Amistad to their plantations in South America. They were on board of the ship, when desesperately after three days of journey in a raining and thundering night slaves rose up, violence in the   

Amistad was notable. Africans stole their weapons and kill the captain and cook. They were led by a Mendi called Cinque.

Alter all that the slaves ordered the Spanish to sail back to their home.

During night, Spanish   decide that instead of sailing back to Africa they would sail north and west, arriving in Montauk Point, Long Island, New York. Later the slave ship was towed to New London,  

Connecticut. There they were arrested for killing some of the crew of the Amistad. James Covey a black Mendi seaman came to talk to slaves, he helped them campaign, for them to have their freedom. They decided to do trials about this case,  that involved the ex– President of the United States of America John Quincy Adams. If slaves were found guilty they would face permanent slavery or death. The first trial lasted a long time. The jury was for the slaves, they say there were innocent, but the adversaries got involved and sent the case to the Supreme Court. The captives had an opportunity to speak about their kidnapping in Africa and the journey to America. In the second trial John Adams spoke up for Africans, Spanish slaves, The first trial lasted a long   

time. The jury was for the slaves, they say there were innocent, but the adversaries got involved and sent the case to the Supreme Court. The captives had an opportunity to speak about their kidnapping in Africa and the journey to America. In the second trial John Adams spoke up for Africans, Spanish said they belong to them, but the declarations of Adams that by that time he was retired of work and nearly blind  were significant and powerful, so they finally decided for slaves to be free and go back from were they came from. Once the case had been conclude, they returned with a right, and did a colony in Africa.