ORIGINAL AFRICAN AMERICANS (OAA), also known as African Americans, Black Americans, and American Freedmen, refers to the descendants of former continental Africans who established the first Black African communities, society, culture, and development of the conterminous United States of America, after being forcibly brought from Africa and enslaved in our country as early as the year 1526, through the final year of our emancipation from slavery in 1865.
Our ethnic group's history is unique and distinct from more recent Black immigrants to the United States of America from Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe, or from any country outside of the U.S. after our emancipation by the Thirteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution in 1865.
CULTURE:
Our Original African American culture is over 500 years old, and encompasses a variety of languages, food, music, dance, agriculture, fashion, religion, hair styles, entertainment, sports, inventions, scientific discoveries, and civil rights movements that have not just established our own legacy, but have also been influential, appreciated, and imitated, nationally and internationally by people outside of our ethnic group.
IDENTITY:
"Original" refers to our people establishing the first Black African ethnic community, people, culture, society, and development of the United States of America, while "African" refers only to our biological, racial, and genetic descended ancestry in relation to the continent of Africa, and our former African ancestors, which is paired with our nationality as "Americans" in the United States since 1526.
FORMER WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICAN ANCESTORS:
The vast majority of our former continental African ancestors were transported between 1526 and 1808 during the Transatlantic "Slave" Trade to the United States of America originated from various ethnic groups in West and Central Africa.
RESILIENCE & PERSERVERENCE:
Despite the immense trauma and disruption of our former cultures and traditions, Original African Americans developed a new culture here in the United States.
We are the first, original, African descended people and community of the United States of America, and are our own distinct ethnic group with a unique culture, identity, racial admixture, and traditions that are over 500 years old.
We do not identify ourselves like any other ethnicity, nationality, or race of people, because we are a unique people with a unique experience in the United States of America, and the ways we identify our ethnic group is a reflection of that.
Our people fought for our freedom both during and after slavery, resulting in new freedoms and opportunity for our community in America.
OVERVIEW OF HISTORY & CONTRIBUTIONS:
Captured during wars or raids with other African tribes and/or Europeans, our ancestors were sold to European enslavers and forced onto ships bound for the Americas, using a journey known as the Middle Passage.
The Middle Passage was notorious for its violence, overcrowding, and high mortality rates.
Upon arrival to the colonial United States in 1526, by a Spaniard enslaver to what are today the states of South Carolina and Georgia, our ancestors were subjected to forced labor on American plantations, primarily in the southern colonies under a system of brutal, chattel slavery.
This led to our ancestors first recorded slavery revolt called the San Miguel de Gualdape Revolt of 1526, where they rebelled against their Spanish enslavers, burned down the enslaver's settlement, and escaped to freedom within weeks of being forcibly taken to this country.
The Transatlantic trade of our enslaved continental African Ancestors was unique in its dehumanization from both rival African tribes, and Europeans who collaborated in the brutality & atrocities of our enslavement, as well as the Anti-Black / Anti-African racialized nature of enslavement it established against our people, in the United States of America.
Original African American (OAA) history is distinct because it began with forced transportation and enslavement, not voluntary immigration, but was yet survived and overcome by our people who were responsible for much of the development, culture, civil rights laws, and the building of the conterminous United States of America.
The new freedoms and new opportunity fought for and established by Original African Americans not only benefitted our own community, but also benefit more recent Black immigrants, and other people of color who would later immigrate to our country after the final enforcement of the emancipation proclamation abolishment of all slavery by 1865.
Original African Americans © 2025 by Nayima Sharif
