African Origins The Human Cradle THREE and a half centuries of immigration have injected ever-fresh doses of energy and tension into the American bloodstream.

As diverse peoples learned to live together, they became a dynamo generating both creativity and conflict.

One of the most diverse elements in American life was introduced when Africans were forcibly brought to the American colonies.
The American experiment had begun and consisted mainly of white men with a European heritage.

The African was of a different color, had a different language, a different religion, and had an entirely different world view.

But perhaps the most striking contrast was that, while the European came voluntarily in search of greater individual opportunity, the African came in chains.