African-Americans were mostly slaves in the US. They were severly discriminated in the south, and they were free in the north. They were brought over to be slaves. Like women and native americans the white men believed that they were better then them. They could not vote, and when they arrived in america, there families were often split up. The slaves tried to escape to the free north. The Underground Railroad was a system of safe houses and secret routes that helped slaves escape to the north. Dred Scott was a slave that tried to get freedom after he was in the north, he ended up still having to be a slave. The African-Americans also rebelled against slavery. One of the rebellions was led by an Afrcian-American named Nat Turner.