“African captives and their descendants paid in blood and sweat for the phenomenal expansion of human possibility in the Atlantic world” (Rice, 62). Among the many groups of people who have immigrated to America are African Americans. At first it was by choice, but he gradually changed until he was captured and forced to emigrate to America to work in the plantation fields. African Americans faced oppression and racial prejudice in a country that placed “all men are created equal” in its constitution. They were treated with disrespect, hostility and cruelty and were made inferior to their peers. Despite the abolition of slavery with the Thirteenth Amendment, African Americans still faced racial prejudice and hostility from all sides. The triangular slave trade occurred in three phases. The first phase was to collect the completed goods from Britain and ship them to Africa. The goods included such things as cloth, tobacco, firearms, etc. These goods were then traded to African tribes for slaves. The second phase involved shipping the slaves to America. The third phase involves the withdrawal of the goods resulting from slave labor and shipment to Europe. The Atlantic slave trade originated with the Portuguese who held great power over the seas during the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. The Portuguese Triangular Trade lasted from 1502 to 1580. They began with slave raids across the coast of West Africa in 1441 and then purchased them from African chieftains in the 1450s. By the end of the 16th century other nations such as Great Britain, Holland and France had joined the slave trade. However, by 1690, the English shipped the greatest number of slaves. The number of Africans leaving their continent has increased from 5,000 to 100,000 per year. They could not access professional jobs such as medicine, because they were barred from the proper education required for this. Racism has always been part of American history. African Americans were forced from their homeland and brought to a nation where white men believe they are superior and born to dominate the East. They faced oppression from the beginning; their freedom was stripped from them and they were forced to depend on white slave owners for their needs. Freedom was in short supply for slaves. When they finally gain it, they live in fear that that freedom will be taken away from them in the blink of an eye. Slavery brought both positive and negative results in American history. It helped boost the U.S. economy, but the destructive and immoral slavery of an entire race will always be a dark part of American history.