Black History

There are a lot of protests A lot of people are now realising how badly Black people have been always going on right been treated. now about the treatment of But where did this all start? Black people. The Slave Trade In the 15th Century, people that lived in countries in Africa were In the 16th Century, British taken from their homes by sailors began buying and Portuguese and Spanish selling slaves. The British traders. They were treated as people made a lot of money objects instead of humans and from this so they didn’t care sold as slaves to what would that slavery was horrible and later be called the United States unfair. of America. Lots of slaves would be put in Slaves are people that have to work small spaces in ships and carried for their ‘owners’. Slaves have to do across the sea to different whatever their owner tells them to countries. These journeys could do. Slavery is against the law now, take months, with the slaves but lots of people used to have chained together the whole time. slaves. The Slave Trade Slaves that became ill on slave Slave owners treated ships weren’t worth much money slaves as property. They to slave owners. So the owners thought their slaves would throw them in the sea and were just like one of ask insurance companies for their toys or like one of money. their pets. Should Black What would it feel like if people be treated you were treated like as less important property? than white people? Should a human be treated as property? Abolition of the Slave Trade Abolition means to get rid of something. Abolition of the slave trade means stopping At the end of the 18th people being used as Century people began slaves. to realise that slavery was wrong, and slaves began to protest their Slaves were becoming slavery. more expensive to buy so slave traders weren’t making as much money. How did people protest against Petitions are like letters written to powerful people – slavery? like the government – which ask them to change Lots of different people started something. Lots of people sign the petition before it is protesting against slavery. They sent to the powerful person. did this in many different ways. Petitions are free to sign and are a common way to protest. They wrote letters to They created leaflets powerful people. showing how bad slavery was. Slaves fought back. They stopped buying things – like sugar – that slave They signed petitions. owners sold. They taught other people about how bad slavery was. Abolition of the Slave Trade In 1772 a man named Lord Mansfield made it illegal to take slaves from Britain and sell them in other countries. But people still In 1807 the slave bought and sold trade was made slaves in England. illegal in England. A man named William Wilberforce was the leader of In 1865 the slave the movement to abolish the trade was made slave trade. Between 1789 illegal in the United and 1807 he went to the States. British Parliament and tried to have slavery made illegal every year. So was that the end of slavery? No. For slaves to be The Government had to freed, the British borrow money to pay these Government had to slave owners. The pay money to the Government only finished slave owners paying back the money they because the slave borrowed in 2015. owners didn’t want to lose their slaves. That means that until 5 years ago, our country was still Slaves also had to Even after slaves paying off slave work for slave were freed, lots of owners. owners for 12 years them found it very after slavery was hard to find a job made illegal. and so were stuck with no money. Who was Harriet Tubman? Harriet Tubman was She managed to a Black woman in escape from slavery America born into and led many other slavery, before it slaves to freedom. was abolished. Click this picture of Harriet Tubman to watch a video about her life. But what happened to Black people after slavery? Black people were still treated like they In America, Black people The end of slavery weren’t as weren’t allowed to use the same was not the end of important as white toilets as white people. They the horrible people. weren’t allowed to go to the treatment of Black same schools as white people. people. They weren’t allowed to go to the same parks as white people. They had to sit at the back of There were still a lot buses and give up their seats if of white people that a white person wanted to sit didn’t like Black there. people. Groups of white people would This was called segregation. attack Black people. Click this picture to watch a video about segregation. But what happened to Black people after slavery? Eventually, in America, people started to realise that it was not okay to have segregation. So Lots of people went to people started protesting. protests and marches to demand equality and Groups of people formed eventually protests worked to persuade the and segregation was American Government to abolished. look after Black people and to stop segregation. Who was Rosa Parks? On December 1st 1955, in the city of Montgomery in Alabama, United States, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white person. This started a protest which led to the removal of segregation on buses in the United States. Click this picture of Rosa Parks to watch a video about her life. Who was Dr Martin Luther King Jr.? Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave powerful speeches and led peaceful protests in America to fight for equal rights for Black people. He did a very famous speech called the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and inspired lots of people to protest for fair treatment of Black people. Click this picture of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. to watch a video about his life. Who is Barack Obama? He was born in Hawaii. He is a member of the Democratic party. Barack Obama became the first ever Black president of the United States in 2009. He passed the ‘Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act’ which meant that people in the US could get medical help easier if they He ended the US involvement didn’t have much money. in the war in Iraq. What about Black people in the United Kingdom? Whilst we did not have During World War 2 American soldiers came over to segregation laws quite like the United Kingdom. The American army America, Black people here segregated black and white people. So when the were still treated like they American army was here, the British Government weren’t as important as allowed them to be segregated and lots of British white people. businesses, like shops and pubs, were told to segregate Black and white people too. Lots of businesses wouldn’t There were lots of protests let Black people work for here to fight for equal them so Black people found treatment of everyone. it harder to get jobs. The Bristol Bus Boycott A boycott is when a lot of people stop using something, In Bristol there was a ‘colour like a bus, or stop buying bar’ which meant that the something. This is just one example of a owners of bus companies lot of protests against racism wouldn’t let non-white people in the United Kingdom. work on their buses. So a lot of people in Bristol took part in the Bristol Bus On the 28th of August, 1963, a Boycott. This was where big bus company in Bristol people didn’t use buses and People also organised sit- decided to let non-white did protest marches around down protests, where they people work for them. The the city. would sit down in front of ‘colour bar’ was over. buses so that the buses couldn’t get to the city centre. It took a long time before A lot of people still think that Black Black people people aren’t important. stopped being This is not true. treated like they weren’t important..

Load more