This book is dedicated to my Husband and Son who supported me and gave me the time and space to create it. I love you!

Introduction

This book is an introduction to the African American Culture and History. This book will take you on an adventure with Myra to discover her families history. Her family has a unique opportunity of moving into the family homestead.  The forturnate thing about this homestead is that it has hidden treasure about her families past. The journey also provides insight into her families traditions and celebrations. Myra is able to discover where she came from, how her family survived lifes struggles and why they have their family values.

Facts about Africa

Africa is the second largest continent on Earth.  There are over 2,000 different spoken languages in Africa. Islam is the largest religion practiced in Africa, followed by Christianity. The Nile, is the  longest river in the world and is 4132 miles long. Africa is also known for having the worlds largest desert the Sahara, which is appoximately the size of the United States. The highest mountain is Mt. Kilimanjaro and Madagascar is the largest island.

Author's Note

This book is written using Multiple genres.  Each page will include 3 basic genres: Realistic Fiction, Graphic Novel, and Informational Text.

Realsitic Fiction: This genre will be used to tell the story of Myra and her families culture, history and traditions.

Graphic Novel: This genre will be used for illustrations and story line as well.

Informational Text: Will be used to give facts about Africa and the African Culture.

Facts about Africa

Africa is the hottest continent and covers over 6% of the Earth's surface.  Africa has over 40% of the world's gold reserve and largest reserves of precious metals.  Africa has 54 countries and is the home of the second largest rainforest in the Congo river basin. The largest waterfall in Africa is Victoria Falls which is over 355 feet high and over 1 mile wide. 

African

Art

African

Clothing

African

Jewelery

FAMILY

TREASURES

African People

Africa is believed to be the oldest, poorest, and most underdeveloped area in the world.  It has a high illiteracy rate almost 40% of Adults are illiterate. Only 1/3 of women in Africa are literate.   90% of all malaria cases are in Africa and it  has over 25 million people who are HIV positive. It is estimatedto have over 3,000 tribes, and each have thier own language and unique culture. The tallest(sudanese) and shortest(pygmies) people in the world live in Africa.

African Animals

Africa is home to some of the biggest, tallest, and fastest animals on the planet.  It has 3 different Ecosystems they live in, the dessert, the rainforest, and the savannah.

Dear Martin,                                              March 15, 1902

I was looking through some old records and found a letter written by Grandfather detailing his trip on the ship arriving in America. Please keep this in our family treasure box.

Love, Amelia

Captured and Enslaved

I was captured in the summer of 1780. All the young strong boys and many of the younger females. We were tied together with metal chains and dragged on board ships. Never again would we see our beloved homeland of Africa. The Europeans had been kidnapping our people for a century. We never saw them once they were placed on board a ship. My experience on the ship was torturous. I was in a small area not higher than about 3 feet, chained by my ankles and wrists. Day after day I felt the rocking of the ship, unable to move or change positions because we were all packed on top of each other.

The smell and the heat in the ships hold was smothering. The trip was several weeks long and occasionally we were taken to the ships deck to get exercise. I think this was more of an opportunity to move the dead bodies out and throw them overboard so the smell of decay and disease was not so strong. Once we arrived in America we were unloaded and placed in a market area. White folk were allowed to bid on us and we were then shackled and put lines to walk behind their wagons. I didn’t understand what they were saying and was separated from my family members, never to see them again.. George 1825

Journal Entry: March 30, 1849

I arrived in Pennsylvania thanks to my friend Dr. Smith, I am now free. The trip in a mail crate was difficult, yet well worth the sufferage I endured. I hope to get a new start and work with my friends here at the underground railroad to find and free my wife and kids.

Slavery in America

Slave ships began arriving in America in 1619 in Jamestown. In 1711, a slave market opened in NY city. In 1815, the Underground Railroad was established by Levi Coffin. In 1849, Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and becomes a conductor for the Underground Railroad. In 1862, the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves, was issued by Abraham Lincoln. The Civil War was fought from 1861-1865 over ending slavery. The South surrendered to the North in 1865, ending the Civil War and slavery in the United States.  In 1866, The Fourteenth Admendment was added to the Constitution, granting citizenship to African Americans.

Harriet Tubman 1820-1913

Harriet Tubman lived during the 1800's. She was a slave that escaped via the underground railroad. Harriet had 8 silblings and escaped slavery in 1849. During Harriet's life she made 19 missions and saved over 700 slaves.  She also saved her parents and siblings. Harriet's nickname was Moses because she saved the slaves like Moses saved the slaves in Egypt.

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Go down Moses

Way down in Egypt land

Tell all pharaoes to

Let my people go!

When Israel was in Egypt land

Let my people go!

Oppressed so hard they could not stand

Let my people go!

So the God said: go down, Moses

Thus spoke the lord, bold Moses said: let my people go!

if not I'll smite, your firstborn's dead

let my people go!

God-the lord said

go down, Moses

Way down in Egypt land

Tell all pharaoes to

Let my people go!

Tell all pharaoes

To let my people go!

Way down in Egypt land

Tell all pharaoes to

Let my people go!

So moses went to Egypt land

Let my people go!

He made all pharaoes understand Let my people go!

Yes the lord said: go down, Moses

Way down in Egypt land

Tell all pharaoes to

Let my people go!

African American Spiritual-Go Down Moses.

Moses was used to refer to the Underground railroad.

Author's Note

This Story is an example of Traditional Literature.  It is a True story that has been passed down throughout the African American Culture.

Millie Evans: Plantation Times

My Birthday always comes in the fodder-pulling time. My mama told me she was pulling fodder until the hour before I was born. Me, born in 1849.

At the time of Surrender, I was a young lady. Don’t remember the owners’ names. But I remember there was about a hundred of us kind. The owners were rich. Mistress tended to us, the women. The Master took over the men. At four o’clock each morning, he would ring the bell for us to get up. Oh, you could hear that bell all over the plantation. I can hear it now--ting, ting-aling-aling. I can see all us stirring, getting up in Carolina. Mistress raised me. But I stayed with my mama every night. My mama had to work very hard. And if Mistress thought the little black children like me were hungry between the meals, she would call us up to the house to eat.

Millie Evans: Plantation Times-Continued

We had johnnycake sometimes and plenty of butter to go with it. See they put the buttermilk in a long trough they kept very clean. They filled the trough with buttermilk. And we little black children would get around the trough and drink into our mouths. We’d hold our johnny cake in our hands. Cooking was always done outdoors for the black folks because they were so many of us. Greens were cooked in a black pot, the kind you wash clothes in. They’d crumble bread in the pot likker and give us spoons and we would stand around the pot and eat...

I remember when freedom come. The Yankees said, “Free!” like that ...Master didn’t want to part with us, and he thought if...

Millie Evans: Plantation Times-Continued

Millie Evans:

Continued

we all went to Arkansas she shouldn’t have to send us off into what we didn’t know about. We were all afraid to be free, afraid one would get gone from the other...

Author's Note

The African American Culture has a rich history of Folktales. They are about a variety of topics such as Animal tales, Fairy Tales, Supernatural, Folkways and Legends, and True tales. These stories are passed down for generations.

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Author's Note

Many African Americans traditions have been passed down. The most popular was about a little rabbit named Brer Rabbit. The rabbit was known for using his brains not muscles to get out of tough situations. This is another example of Traditional Literature, yet only a small portion the story. These stories inspired the slaves with thoughts of freedom.

Brer Rabbit and Tarbaby

Brer Rabbit had gotten stuck to Tarbaby through a trick of Brer Fox. Brer Fox was about to drown Brer Rabbit and this is were we pick up the story. ("No, no, Brer Fox. You Know I can't stand water, but I guess drowning , awful as it is, is better than the briar patch."..."That's all right, Brer Fox. It'll hurt something awful, but go ahead and skin me. Scratch out my eyeballs! Tear out my ears by the roots! Cut off my legs! Do what'nsoever you want to with me, Brer Fox, but please, please, please! Don't throw me in the briar patch!"...Brer Fox really wanted to hurt him and so he threw him in the briar patch instead of drowning him...'Tee-hee! Tee-hee!...Brer Rabbit waved. " I was born and raised in the briar patch, Brer Fox! Born and raised in the briar patch" And he hopped on over the hill and out of sight.)

Civil Rights

Although Slavery had ended the African Americans did not have many of the rights that were provided to US Citizens. In February of 1875 Jim Crow laws were enacted in Tennessee limiting the rights of African Americans. Segregation continued in the US for many more years.   African American people in the South were still not able to attend the same schools,drink out of the same water fountains, shop in the same stores,  or eat in the same areas as white people. In 1954, Brown vs the Board of Education, ordered that African American children could attend the same schools as white children. This started the Civil Rights movement.  In 1955, came the Rosa Parks bus boycott and the Civil Rights movement lead by Dr. Martin Luther King JR. In 1957 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, protecting the rights of African Americans in the US and updated the Act in 1960 and beyond.