Igbo Americans

Igbo people prior to the American Civil War were brought to the United States by force from their hinterland homes on the Bight of Biafra and shipped by Europeans to North America between the 17th and 19th centuries.

Their presence in the United States was met with mixed feelings by American plantation owners because of their 'rebellious' attitudes to enslavement.

The recent migrant population from Nigeria settled in many of the United States' larger cities and urban centres and had come largely in search of economic opportunities in the late 20th century.

Slaves in Virginia relied on sweet potato which is argued by Douglas Chambers to be an indication of a substitute for yam, the Igbo staple crop.

Igbo culture manifested in America through the Jonkonnu festivals that once took residence in the black slave population in Virginia.

This masquerade bears similarity with the masking traditions of the Okonko secret society who still operate in the Igbo hinterland.

[citation needed] The vast majority of Igbo Americans identify as Christian, with a significant amount of adherents to 85% Roman Catholicism.

Protestantism; including Anglicanism, Seventh day Adventist, Baptist, Methodist and non-denominational churches; make up the other denominations of Igbo Christians.

[8] Igbo Landing is a historic site in Dunbar Creek of St. Simons Island, Glynn County, Georgia, United States.

In 1803 it was the location of a mass suicide by Igbo slaves in resistance to slavery in the United States, and is of symbolic importance in African American folklore and literary history.