ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of American racial and ethnic history and highlights of changes that have occurred since the days of the first settlement which provide a baseline for understanding the contemporary scene. It discusses the three major cohorts: the natives; the North European conquerors, colonists and settlers; and the African slaves. The Native Americans were once starngers themselves, for they crossed over from Asia more than 20,000 years ago. The English settlers had their own ways of living: their own norms and values, their own culture and subcultures. The first people of African descent to come to America arrived in 1619. At the end of the Civil War, Black Codes were proposed. These were laws that would give freed blacks legal rights to many and bear witness in courts of law but would not extend to such things as the ownership of land or work in particular trades.
