What group of people was taken and sold as slaves?

Why this is the answer

The answer is Africans, or people from Africa, and USCIS accepts both wordings. In time, the Jamestown colonists moved into new areas and began growing tobacco and, later, cotton to sell in England. The crops paid well, but there were not enough people to work the farms. European countries with colonies in the Americas filled that gap by taking people from Africa, carrying them across the ocean and selling them as slaves. The USCIS study guide counts the people forced onto those ships in the millions, and it uses the term enslaved person for someone forced to work with no freedom. The first group of enslaved Africans reached Jamestown in 1619, and by 1700 many more were being brought to the colonies. Men, women and children came against their will, and families were often split apart at the moment of sale. They worked without pay and without basic rights. Most were forced to work in agriculture, though enslaved people did many other kinds of work in the colonies too. Slavery shaped the rest of the country's history. USCIS calls it a challenge for a nation founded on individual freedom and democratic beliefs, and it was one of the problems that led to the Civil War, which began in 1861. Slavery did not end in law until the 13th Amendment was added to the Constitution on December 6, 1865. Juneteenth, now a national holiday, marks June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, became the last to learn they were free. At the interview a short answer is complete: "Africans" is enough. Some applicants hesitate because they know slavery existed in many countries long before America was founded, which is true, but the question asks about the people brought to the American colonies and sold, and they came from Africa. Native Americans, Irish immigrants and British prisoners are not accepted answers. Tying the year 1619 to Jamestown gives you a fixed point to hang the answer on, and it reminds you how early in the colonial story slavery began.