In 1619, the first African Americans were brought to and used in the colony of Jamestown. They were servants from central and southern Africa. These servants provided a cheap work force, but were still required to be paid.
Soon African servants became slaves when it was discovered that it was close to free to use slaves. They would no longer get a payment and could be sold to any other slave owner.
Slaves were quickly thought of as non-human. Punishment ranged from a severe whipping to even murder. Families were split apart when sold across the country.
After the United States was formed, and slaves were a common ownership, the Civil War started between the North and the South over the thought of owning slaves, or a "freedom war," as Lincoln called it. This is the first war in which African Americans were allowed to participate in fighting. In the army the blacks were first treated differently, but gradually accepted. The blacks in the navy were accepted at once because of their living conditions alongside the whites; general jobs, living quarters, and eating schedules.
On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation stating that all slaves were free. This only applied to states under the Confederacy, the group for slavery, because Lincoln had no control of states in the areas occupied by Union, side against slavery. This left three hundred thousand under slavery, but more than ten thousand slaves were freed.
"The cause of slavery and the cause of the country have become one. Liberty and Union have become identical," stated Frederick Douglass, who escaped slavery himself.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) formed a year later. This political group soon began focusing on the now free blacks they thought were plaguing their country. The KKK was also infuriated that they could no longer legally control the African American race, which had previously been legal.
This led the KKK to lynching and other illegal actions to blacks, and soon other races and religions as well. Eventually these works of hate were banned by the Civil Rights Act of 1871, along with the KKK itself. Later, the KKK was allowed to reestablish.
The KKK's hate actions still continued. Crosses were burnt in the yards of those they hated. Kidnappings and murders still occurred. Slowly these actions decreased as more and more frequently those who committed these crimes were punished.