reading a book "The Shaping of Black America The Struggles and Triumphs of African-Americans, 1619 to the 1900s. by Lerone Bennett, Jr. it's rather interesting. talks about (so far) the first generation of blacks here not being slaves but indentured servants who worked side by side with white indentured servants as race at this point in history wasn't an issue. class was. - this makes sense as the first "americans" landed here were english. talks about eventually blacks becoming slaves and certain groups of whites forced into life-long servatude (germans, scotts, irish, and other undesirables in england kidnapped and brought over). then goes into what we know from history books until the present.