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Certain times in America history, our country has been geared to make a change or to stand pat. Unfortunately, keeping with the status quo was accepting by a majority of our citizens. Whenever a change occurred, that change was spearheaded by a chosen minority who believed a society can evolve for the better. Eras in our history were pathed by economic, political and social pioneers. Let us take a hard look at two, defined eras through American History.

The Era of Slavery (1620?-1968)

It was said that the first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia. They were shipped via the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade route which crossed through the West Indies from Africa. Tens of thousands of kidnapped Africans were chained, and then auctioned like wholesale cattle to the highest bidders. Wealthy businessmen purchased slaves for menial labor, such as digging, lifting or constructing. Plantation owners used slaves for day to night work in the cotton fields. Blacks picked, sorted and bundled cotton by hand under a brutal Southern sun. Outdoor duties were what killed off many slaves from physical exhaustion, hunger and thirst. They were the Field Negroes. The luckier slaves made their way into the owners' homes. The House Negroes were mostly women. They kept the home immaculate, made sure the children were fed and clothed and provided twenty-four hour assistance to their masters. The House Negroes' roles didn't end with home care. White men have always secretly desired African women. Even though, many landowners and businessmen were married, interrracial affairs occurred often. Black women gave birth to dozens of biracial children. Some were kept. Others were adopted. Black culture was destroyed by slavery. Black families were ripped apart by slavery. Murder, disease, torture and imprisonment killed hundreds of thousands living in slavery. After the Civil War ended and Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation, slavery didn't end there.
An attempted Reconstruction of the nation failed miserably; introducing the white supremacist Klu Klux Klan, Jim Crow and the terms "separate but equal" to the world. A movement for civil rights began with a old, black woman refusing to surrender her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955. A charismatic minister named Martin Luther King Jr. captured a nation with his tidal wave of non-violence and mass protest before winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Like so many inspiring martyrs,

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