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African Americans were first brought to America against their will when America was just starting out. They were brought over as free labor and enslaved simply because they could not fight back. In fact, slaves became such a hot commodity that the slave trade became one of the best and most profitable imports of America at that time, especially popular on the huge plantations in the South. There were slaves in New York as well, a fact that is often forgotten due to the North’s beliefs in the Civil War. The North is largely remembered for being against slavery during the Civil War, a fact that has all but obliterated the fact that, although not to the extent of the southern plantations, many northern houses owned one or two slaves. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many now free African Americans moved to the North to support themselves. Many settled in New York City, and they tended to live in the low income neighborhoods.
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1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Slave_Auction_Ad.jpg
