What did ancient Africans do?
Farmers – Most people in Ancient Africa were farmers. They spent much of their day working the land growing crops such as yams, sorghum, barley, and wheat. Some people fished for food or took care of herds of livestock such as cattle and sheep.
What did slaves do in ancient Africa?
In West African kingdoms, slaves of the king often lived in separate agricultural villages and toiled to produce food for noble families and government officials. Away from the royal courts, however, enslaved people generally did the same agricultural and artisanal work as free people and dressed in a similar manner.
Why Ancient Africa is important?
The geography impacted where people could live, important trade resources such as gold and salt, and trade routes that helped different civilizations to interact and develop. A wide variety of peoples developed throughout Ancient Africa over the course of history.
What jobs did slaves do in Africa?
The vast majority of enslaved Africans employed in plantation agriculture were field hands. Even on plantations, however, they worked in other capacities. Some were domestics and worked as butlers, waiters, maids, seamstresses, and launderers. Others were assigned as carriage drivers, hostlers, and stable boys.
What did African Americans do in the New World?
Enslaved Blacks were put to work clearing and cultivating the farmlands of the New World. Of an estimated 10 million Africans brought to the Americas by the trade of enslaved peoples, about 430,000 came to the territory of what is now the United States.
What kind of jobs did African Americans have?
After the 1950s, the Census begins to show African Americans employed in manufacturing, and as clerks, bookkeepers, cab and bus drivers, mechanics, policemen, managers, foremen, salesmen, accountants, auditors, and nurses.
What was life like for African Americans after the Civil War?
The black family, the black church, and education were central elements in the lives of post-emancipation African Americans. Many African Americans lived in desperate rural poverty across the South in the decades following the Civil War. For African Americans in the South, life after slavery was a world transformed.
What did African Americans do in the Revolutionary War?
In Virginia alone, as many as 150 black men, many of them slaves, served in the state navy. After the war, the legislature granted several of these men their freedom as a reward for faithful service. African Americans also served as gunners, sailors on privateers and in the Continental Navy during the Revolution.