Final answer:
Due to the interregional slave trade and the demands of the cotton industry, the Mississippi River was pivotal in the African American experience with implications ranging from forced migration to aiding the establishment of a unique cultural identity despite systemic adversity.
Step-by-step explanation:
The complicated relationship that African Americans had with the river developed due to the geographic and economic conditions of the time, particularly the interregional slave trade and the cotton industry. The Mississippi River played a dual role as a means of transportation for the internal slave trade and as a crucial part of the cotton kingdom's success. Steamboats, integral to the transportation revolution, carried enslaved African Americans to be sold in the Lower South, underscoring the dehumanizing aspect of slavery where individuals were treated as cargo.
Despite the harsh conditions and the threat of permanent separation from family, African Americans managed to create their own unique cultural identity, with developments in language and religion. This cultural resilience occurred even as they suffered greatly under the conditions of forced migration and servitude.
The post-Civil War era saw African Americans and immigrants facing violence and discrimination in river cities as they sought employment, sometimes perceived by native whites as threats to their livelihood due to job competition. Nevertheless, African American workers in places like Baltimore sought to maintain or create new opportunities, such as forming the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company.
In the realm of agriculture, Africans' contributions to the Low Country rice cultivation in Carolina and Georgia through sophisticated soil and water management techniques were significant. This ingenuity, brought by Africans to the plantations, played a crucial role in the success of the agricultural practices in the Southern States.