The history of the United States contains immigration of many ethnicities. It already started tens of thousands of years ago, when prehistoric Asian hunter-gatherers crossed the dry land that would later become the Bering Sea, and eventually spread out over the whole continent of America. Their descendents would later become known as Native Americans. Then the Europeans came, spreading over the whole continent in no time at all.

Only shortly afterwards a disturbing part of New World history began: the period of slavery. In our days it’s difficult to understand the way of thinking of this period, but we are often confronted with it, in many ways. The presence of the African-American population in America is very prominent nowadays: the country has come a long way, even to the extend that at the moment I write this, an African-American is running for the presidency! Yes, Black history in the United States has changed (tremendously|for the good}, which definitely restores ones faith in mankind.

However, there are still many relics of the period of Black enslavement and discrimination. Nowadays several of those have become collectable parts of Black American history. Under the general lable Black Americana those objects are often collected. Often by African-Americans who wish to preserve part of their personal history in the form of African-American memorabilia, but also by others who perceive them als valuable tokens of a time that was strongly different from our own, and that must not be forgotten.

Among these Black Americana or collectables are every day objects like kitchenalia, but also originals or replicas of objects from the slavery period itself. Many books about this era are offered, and indeed should be read. African-American memorabilia is a subject that reminds us all of how life should not be, and by keeping this reminder in view we contribute to greater knowledge of African-American history.