Americans of African descent include many cultural and regional groups, including early settlers and immigrants from the Caribbean, immigrants from other parts of the Americas, and recent immigrants from African countries.
But most African Americans are descendants of Africans who were forcibly brought to America through the Slave trade.
Early in the colonial era some were treated as indentured servants and freed after a period of time, resulting in a population of free African Americans even in the colonial era.
African Americans were brought as Slaves during the French and Spanish colonial period.
An estimated 645,000 Africans were imported into the United States between 1650 and 1808 as Slave labor.
They came primarily from sub-Saharan Africa’s northwestern and middle-western coastal regions and worked under harsh conditions predominantly in the cash crop economy of the rural South.
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal oh-ah
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal well
Go ‘head marry Don’t you wait on me oh-ah
Go ‘head marry Don’t you wait on me well now
Might not want you when I go free oh-ah
Might not want you when I go free well now
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal oh-ah
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal well now
Raise them up higher, let them drop on down oh-ah
Raise them up higher, let them drop on down well now
Don’t know the difference when the sun go down oh-ah
Don’t know the difference when the sun go down well now
Berta in Meridian and she living at ease oh-ah
Berta in Meridian and she living at ease well now
I’m on old Parchman, got to work or leave oh-ah
I’m on old Parchman, got to work or leave well now
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal oh-ah
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal well now
When you marry, don’t marry no farming man oh-ah
When you marry, don’t marry no farming man well now
Everyday Monday, hoe handle in your hand oh-ah
Everyday Monday, hoe handle in your hand well now
When you marry, marry a railroad man oh-ah
When you marry, marry a railroad man well now
Everyday Sunday, dollar in your hand oh-ah
Everyday Sunday, dollar in your hand well now
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal oh-ah
O Lord Berta Berta O Lord gal well