In Equiano's personal slave narrative, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", Equiano flips the idea that the African people are backwards and barbaric, thus ripe for slavery, by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that it is truly the white people who are backwards and barbaric through their own hypocrisy. This reversal that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people exists as a misconception and makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish slavery and any inequality present.
In Chapter 1 and 2 of “Creating Black Americans,” author Nell Irvin Painter addresses an imperative issue in which African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed (2) and continue to be perceived in a negative light (1). This book gives the author the chance to revive the history of Africa, being this a sacred place to provide readers with a “history of their own.” (Painter 4)
Sally Hemings was a slave on the Monticello plantation in the late 18th century, and her experience helps us to understand that her gender aided the way she was treated versus if they went by the color of her skin (Dilkes Mullins). {Woman during this era were thought of as property, they were objectified, they were treated poorly and had no choice. Their husbands were liable for anything that they did} [Being a female during this era outweighed what one 's social status was. It did not matter what race you were, but if you were a woman, you were treated as such] (Dilkes Mullins).
During the 19th century, one of the most important historical events has taken place. In the years 1830 's, black people were captured and detained as slaves. A very big number of black population were sold as workers (slaves). Fanny Kemble, a British woman got to experience the reality of what was going on and asked for justice. At some stage in her life she wrote ' ' The Journal of a residence on a Georgian plantation ' ' in which she talks about natural and environmental discoveries leading to exploration of plantation boundaries. But the most interesting part of her journal was when she started explaining the life of a slave. There were two plantation where the author discusses about, in the region of Georgia near St Simon 's Island.
Arthur Miller brings slavery and racism and in his play, “The Crucible” which are the very common themes in black literature. Tituba lives under the triple oppression of these two things. Under the slavery system, she has to work outside from her homeland Barbados, which makes it hardly possible for her to return. “Negro slave enters. Tituba is in her forties. Parris brought her with him from Bardados, where he spent some years as a merchant” (17). The Commercial slavery was the logical extension both of the need to acquire a cheap labor force for burgeoning planter economies, and of the desire to construct Europe’s cultures as ‘civilized’ in contrast to the native, the cannibal and the savage (Ashcroft et al., 1998). The slavery system not only consumed the black physically but also destroyed them spiritually. In The Crucible, Tituba, a black woman and slave, is suffering from loss of ambitious to return home under slavery. Secondly, under the racism, as a black woman in the white society.
Abina and the Important Men, written by Trevor R. Getz and illustrated by Liz Clarke, is an adaptation of Abina, a slave’s story and her trial for justice. Abina believes she was sold into slavery despite it being illegal in the British Colonies. The crisis, I believe, is that she struggles to prove her slavery past in court, making it difficult to receive any compensation for her forced labor. The book as, at first, a graphic novel with pictures incorporated with the dialogue. The second part is the actual transcript between Abina and everyone else in the court. I noted a few differences in the experience between reading the primary and secondary document. I believe Abina’s crisis is her inability to express in the court's vernacular that she was wrongfully enslaved, and I believe the differences between the primary and secondary documents change the course of the crisis.
As the boom from the transatlantic slave trade was being put into a question of universal humanity and morality, millions of Africans were still being sold into a life of victimhood. Amongst those millions were freemen being stripped from their homes, because of their race, in the core and coastal regions of Africa. The Neirsee Incident occurred on, “January 21st, 1828” at a “British owned palm oil house near old Calabar” (Blaufarb and Clarke 71). The Neirsee as it was stopped at the port near the British owned palm oil house, was interrupted by a character name Feraud who “slipped out of old Calabar on the Neirsee”, where the ship was eventually seized after it had, “just loaded its human cargo” (Blaufarb and Clarke 72). The incident had led to innocent British citizens lives being sold into the slave trade. The incident had caused an uproar because the cargo and falsified evidence were justification to send the incident to court, but it’s captured by slavers endangered the lives of freemen. From the outside perspective of those who were not on the ship, but the officials in control varied their opinion. One opinion coming from the British and French naval and colonial officials, the other coming from British and French diplomatic officials. The Neirsee Incident outlined in the novel, Inhuman Traffick, expands on the differing beliefs of colonial and diplomatic officials where one follows the standard protocol for slave freedom, and the other tries to free those who are
Under the power and jurisdiction of their masters, slaves lost their humanity and became extensions of their masters (Rauch, Sherman, & Hagel). Consequently, slaves wished to escape their cycle of subordination as presented in many non-fictional slave texts, such as in Mariano Pereira’s interview after slavery or in the Ilheus, Bahia slave treaty in 1789 (Krueger). Given that the slave could not challenge the institution with enough power to eliminate it, slaves must have sought other means to oppose the institution and gain some autonomy. Hence, primary sources become excellent texts to extract and define the form of resistances slaves utilized to oppose their masters. In Plautus’s play, Pseudolus, and Machado de Assis’s short story, The Cane, slaves used the manipulation of language, the master’s power in persuasion, and the reliance on others to wager on gaining autonomy.
In this article “African Dimensions Of The Stono Rebellion”, John Thornton a professor of history and African American studies, who wrote about the African slaves in the Americas, and specifically the servants in South Carolina during the early eighteenth century. In his writing, the author describes the personality of Africans and their desire to escape from slavery, going through obstacles on their path to freedom.
The authors try to give Abina a opinion by filling in the empty spaces of the court transcript, which was actually a transliteration of what Abina said. Part IV of the book explains the problems they faced while trying to give Abina an opinion. For example, problems like reconstructing the way Abina talked and looked, and decoding the significance of the removal of Abina's beads, were some of the many issues that the authors had to explore and reinterpret in their own way.
Adjuah N’Yamiwhah’s testimony states, multiple times, that Abina was sold by her husband, Yowahwah to Quamina Eddoo, who is the defendant. She also explains that Abina was treated like a slave. She explains how she talked to Yowahwah about Abina, and that he confirms that he had sold her as a slave to Quamina Eddoo “I asked him, and he said he had sold her to Quamina Eddoo.” ( N’Yamiwhah, 103). During her testimony, some details contradicts to Abina’s testimony. She states that Abina was sold on Monday, on Tuesday her husband made his purchases and then he left on Wednesday, also Abina did not carry any of those goods. On the other hand, Abina stats that she carried the goods, and then she was sold. There testimonies contradict, but on small
First Generations: Women of Colonial America, written by Carol Berkin, is a novel that took ten years to make. Carol Berkin received her B.A. from Barnard College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from Columbia University. She has worked as a consultant on PBS and History Channel documentaries. Berkin has written several books on the topic of women in America. Some of her publications include: Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence (2004) and Civil War Wives: The Life and Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant (2009). The prejudice that the author brings forward strongly is the notion of feminism.
A Narrative of Captivity by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano are two generally read imprisonment accounts , which, individually, relate the encounters of a grown-up white lady caught by Indians and an eleven-year-old Black male caught for the American slave market. Looking at these two accounts uncovers fascinating similitudes and contrasts and in addition in the encounters and responses of these two prisoners. Like distinctive Puritans of her day, the purpose for Mary Rowlandson’s narrative was to express God 's inspiration in her life. In this
In the late-nineteen century, the term new imperialism became an element of politics implemented by many European powers to impose their supremacy around the globe. Between 1870 and 1914, as a result of the Great Depression (1873-1879), imperialistic powers such as Britain, France, Germany, and Belgium, constructed colonies and protectorates in Asia and Africa in order to exploit their resources and their labor . In 1880, France and Britain led European nations in the “scramble of Africa,” which divided the continent from 1880 to 1914. After the king of Belgium Leopold II conquered most of the Congo River with the excuse of promoting Christianity and civilization, other European nations caught “African fever.” As a result of the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), to which Africans were not invited, the imperialist competition in sub-Saharan Africa began . Consequently, violence became an element implemented by all European nations to retain control and subdue the population. However, in Leopold II’s Congo Free State the levels of violence and brutality were excessively high. As a protest against the cruelty and abuses conducted by the Belgian troops, Edward Morel, a British journalist and socialist, wrote “The Black Man’s Burden” in 1903. In this document, the author condemned the conditions of African people in Belgian Congo, reconnecting them to the presence of European
In Terry Alford’s novel “Prince Among Slaves” there were many people that strived to bring Ibrahima back to Africa, during this time he also worked to free his children. The role of letter writing had an impact on the course of the book and each person connected the direction of Ibrahima’s journey.