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Beninese American are Americans of Beninese descent. According to the census of 2000, in the United States there are only 605 Americans of Beninese origin.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Table 1. First, Second, and Total Responses to the Ancestry Question by Detailed Ancestry Code: 2000 )〕 However, because in the first half of the eighteenth century many slaves were exported from Benin to the present United States, the number of African Americans with one or more Beninese ancestors could be much higher. So, the number of slaves from Bight of Benin exported to present United States exceeded 6,000 people, although this might consist not only in Benin, but also washes the shores of Ghana, Togo and Nigeria. It is also important to note that they were slaves from modern Benin (along with the Haitian immigrants arrived in the United States in the late nineteenth century), who planted voodoo in Louisiana. Currently, there Beninese communities in cities such as Chicago or Washington D.C and in other states as New York. ==History== The first people from present-day Benin who came to United States were slaves, arrived to this country in the colonial period. Most of the slaves of Bight of Benin that hailed from Benin itself were imported to South Carolina (36%), Virginia (23%), Gulf Coast (28%) and Florida (9,8%). The top three picked up a few thousand slaves of this Straits (Florida only received 698 slaves from Bight of Benin). Many of those slaves were imported to Louisiana and Alabama (where was famous the case of Clotilde slave ship, that exported between 110 and 160 slaves from Dahomey to Mobile in 1859, between them to Cudjo Lewis (ca. 1840 – 1935), considered the last person born on African soil to have been enslaved in the United States when slavery was still lawful),〔"Question of the Month: Cudjo Lewis: Last African Slave in the U.S.?", by David Pilgrim, Curator, Jim Crow Museum, July 2005, webpage:(Ferris-Clotilde ).〕 both belonging to the Gulf Coast. It was in Louisiana where her presence was notable. Indeed, between 1719 and 1731, most of the slaves who came to that place came directly from Benin. They were especially Fon, but many slaves also were of ethnics such as Nago (Yoruba subgroup, although exported mainly by Spanish,〔(Google books: Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana's Free People of Color ). Wrote by Sybil Kein.〕 when the Louisiana was Spanish) -, Ewe, and Gen. Many of the slaves imported to the modern United States since Benin were sold by the King of Dahomey, in Whydah.〔 However, not all the slaves sold in day-present Benin were of there: Many were of other places, but were captured by Dahomeyan warriors.〔(Zora Neale Hurston, "Cudjo's Own Story of the Last African Slaver", ''Journal of Negro History'', pp. 662-63. )〕 The native slaves from current Benin came from places as Porto-Novo, from where were brought to the port of Ouidah, place in the that was realized the slave shopping. This place brought many slaves to the present United States.〔Law, Robin, ''Ouidah: The Social History of a West African Slaving "Port", 1727-1892'', Ohio State University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8214-1572-7〕 The slaves brought with them their cultural practices, languages, and religious beliefs rooted in spirit and ancestor worship, which were key elements of Louisiana Voodoo.〔 Also Haitians, who migrated Louisiana since the late nineteenth century and also contributed to Voodoo of this state, have the Beninese origin as one of its main origins. During the twentieth century, most of the Beninese people migrating to foreign countries were headed to Europe, mainly to France and Belgium, because Benin shares with them the same language (as Benin was a French colony since late of nineteenth to 1960), the costs to migrate to these countries were lower than the costs found in countries like the United States and the availability of visas. However, in the 1980s, some Beninese began migrating to New York, attracted by educational and employment opportunities found in this state. The Benineses who arrived to New York for live there, worked usually in the manufacture or sale of African clothing and hairbraiding, as happened with other West African groups in the state. However, it was not until the 90s when the Beninese population grew significantly in the United States compared to previous Beninese immigration in this country. It was from this decade when the Beninese began to feel attracted to Chicago and other major cities, encouraging the emigration of families and friends there. As in New York, many Beninese women also worked in hairbraiding elsewhere in the United States. In the late 1990s many other Beninese people from Benin and Europe immigrated to United States in one second wave, pursuing also better working conditions and study, well as a graduate education.〔(Encyclopedia of Chicago: Beninese ). Wrote by Tracy Steffes.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beninese Americans」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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