Abina And The Important Men

Believe it or not slavery was a problem even for Indians. Many Indians were captured and sold into slavery, Indians such as Sacagawea who was born in 1788 (Timeline). Unfortunately, Sacagawea was captured at a young age and was forced into slavery. We know her as the young, brave woman who traveled with Lewis and Clark on their expedition to the West. She is also recognized on the one dollar coin for her amazing adventure with the discoverers (Hoose 130). There is much to be known about this extraordinary women. The way she was taken from her family and put into slavery is a major part of her life, as well as her adventure with Lewis and Clark, what happened after she returned home and the legacy she left behind.

Abina and the Important Men is the tale of an west African woman from Ashantee who was abducted twice and sold multiple times as a slave. The book is about her trial at court and her prosecution against Quamina Eddoo. Quamina Eddoo is a wealthy man that farms palm oil that owns young slaves. Slavery in the Gold Coast at the time was illegal due to British colonization and their abolition of slavery. Enforcing British rule against slavery was difficult in the Gold Coast. British rule clearly dictates that slavery is illegal, however, slavery was what kept the Gold Coast economy going and was apart of their tradition. At the time, palm oil was one of the staples of their economy, in which the British profited from significantly, and child slaves did the field work. If the British enforce their slavery laws against all the rich landowners who produce this oil, it would destroy the economy and relations with the powerful locals. Abina’s case was one of horrible circumstance, but provides a unique approach of historical significance.

The story of “Abina and the Important Men” takes place in 1876. The English had control over the Gold coast since 1874. The English did away slavery in Britain, but the colonies had a hard time switching from slavery to freedom. This was one of the many major themes of Abina and the Important Men. By definition a civilizing mission is “a rationale for intervention or colonization, proposing to contribute to the spread of colonization”, according to Google.com. The civilizing mission in this story is to expose the encounters modelled by the English political and legal system integrating the Gold Coast.

Do you think besides literature have another ways to display history? Can historians show you the picture about the historic event instead of imagining them by yourselves? “Abina and the Important Men” is a graphic history book, so the authors not only gives readers literal record but also give images to illustrate the history. The story happened in west Africa in 1876. In story includes phenomenon of the society, and certain African cultures. Abina Mansah, Quamina Eddoo and William Meltonare most important characters in the story because they represent different hierarchies in the society and display different condition in these hierarchies.

Slavery had been outlawed but no one wanted to step on anyone’s toes. They didn’t want to make anyone mad. They wanted to keep it chaos free. Abina should be applauded because she did go up against a powerful man and still was hopeful and positive towards her verdict. Even though she thought she was right, technically she wasn’t treated badly. When the historians found the background context describing what a slave is in terms of the Asante people, they weren’t treated unfairly. The people just had nowhere to go. Even through her eyes, she considered herself a slave, I understand the court’s decision in to letting her be free and living her life and her old master getting a slap on the wrist. The court knew the last thing they needed was for slave owners, who at this time were a select and powerful few, up against the British. The British tried to remain neutral. They wanted the resources and they wanted to claim their territory as their own, but they didn’t want the backlash that came with it. Slavery was just swept under the rug. As most things were probably done during this

Davis reminded Abina that even though all were free, Eddoo was an important man and the British didn’t like to alienate important men. Following, the magistrate, William Melton, agreed to hear the case and sent at Quamina Eddoo on the charge of slavery. The trial started and Abina was questioned as to why she believed she was a slave. Abina responded saying, “They held me down, and cut my beads, and I was told that I was to be their amperley-their slave.” (Chapter 2, page 24) Throughout the court case and Abina’s flashback to the court, the men of the court strived to somehow imposed their own meanings and understandings of slavery upon Abina and silence her.

The issue of slavery has been in infamous part of American history since it first started in the 1600’s in Jamestown, Virginia. During the colonial era, white male landowners needed help on their land taking care of crops, so they would purchase the African slaves after they arrived by boat and have them work the land as well as other tasks that needed to be done such as tending to

Slavery of course did exist before its institutionalization in the colonial era. Before the Native Americans and Africans, there were still indentured servants and people who fell victim to power struggles and war. However, the significance and what separates the colonists ' slaves from the indentured servants is the factor of race. Never before had racial stratification been so prevalent and widespread until the arrival of African servants and slaves. Unlike the white indentured servants who were of the same land and culture as their masters, the colonial slaves were completely different from the Europeans in terms of culture, race, language, and homeland. Their darker skin color and appearances were easy to discern them from the colonists, and they did not understand the language and culture. African 's physical appearances

Davis agreed to present Abina’s case to a magistrate, but the only problem was that Quamina Eddoo was an important man who grew palm oil. Davis reminded Abina that even though all were free, Eddoo was an important man and the British didn’t like to alienate important men. Following, the magistrate, William Melton, agreed to hear the case and sent at Quamina Eddoo on the charge of slavery. The trial started and Abina was questioned as to why she believed she was a slave. Abina responded saying, “They held me down, and cut my beads, and I was told that I was to be their amperley-their slave.” (Chapter 2, page 24) Throughout the court case and Abina’s flashback to the court, the men of the court strived to somehow imposed their own meanings and understandings of slavery upon Abina and silence her.

The origins and development of slavery within Britain’s North American colonies in the period 1607 to 1776 was majorly in part by the English need for economic power. England had just arose as the strongest naval of the North Atlantic had they had to keep their high standing in the world. Bacon’s Rebellion, the profit received by cash crops, and the ability to easily purchase slaves through trade highly boosted Britain’s economy. The colonists within the British colony kept through economic standing and power by making themselves higher than any other through slavery.

Colonists felt they were slaves to the British country being taxed at unreasonable prices and being abided to very restrictive laws. The actual slaves under the colonists were the neglected people. Colonists ironically used the metaphor of slavery to justify their rights as colonists who felt like they were slaves. An example being given by the book is introducing James Otis who wrote The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved. In this selection he tries to compare colonists to black slaves being restricted by chain. This shows on the silences present in the early years of colonization, no one recognized or even acknowledged the idea of actual slavery as a problem, but the metaphor of slavery being imposed on the colonists. The author explains, "It was impossible for the colonists to be the subjects of subjects. That's what slaves were legally: the subjects of subjects. If the white colonists were to be simply governed, or forced to behave, they were being treated like

According to Janelle Collins article titled, Passgae to Slavery, Passage to Freedom: Olaudah and the Sea “The slave narrative genre is generally recognized as a text that persuasively uses autobiography to argue against the inhumanity and injustice of the institution of slavery.” This explanation begs the question of what is a slave. Slaves were very common in early American history. Slavery is not something Americans celebrate though. It caused a lot of problems and even set war between brothers. People have for a long time struggled with the thought of why and how people were able to own other people and discern differences which made one better than the other. Slaves were not just any kind of people; slaves were men, women, and children who were not English or white by nature. Slaves were made of a large population of black Africans who were forced to come to America to work for other people. How did slaves come to America? To answer that question one would need to take a look into an autobiography titled, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. As described by Olaudah and proved by other evidence, the journey through the Middle Passage was one that forced, it was horrendously dirty, and only the beginning to life as a slave.

The economic dependence the colonies existence had on the slaves was another reason Stedman was not an abolitionist. Surinam was dependent on the slaves because the economy of Surinam relied on crops such as sugar and tobacco that were grown on large plantations manned by slaves. These African slaves were the only men who could work these fields. Stedman in describing the differences between Africans and the white man said Africans were more physically fit and their dark skin, resulting from the climate in their home land of Africa, allowed them to more easily work in the harsh environment and climate that Stedman faced. If slavery were abolished the economy of the colony would collapse. Not only would it be hard to get the white man to work these fields, Stedman explains that the Negro as a free man would be “ten times sooner be employed in dancing, drinking and catching fish, or killing a boar or jaguar, than in planting” (Stedman, 93) Due to the lack of labor Surinam would be “forced to go to foreign markets and buy at double price” (Stedman, 92) and they would no longer have their main cash crops thus cutting a majority of the colonies revenue.

Book Review of Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History History is not static, it is ever changing and evolving. As time goes on history changes because of new discoveries that alter the way things have been and shed new light on what had been considered true. In Abina and the Important Men: A Graphic History historian Trevor Getz introduces a new voice into the story of British controlled West Africa in the late nineteenth century. Getz and Liz Clarke, an illustrator, bring forth the story of Abina, a young West African woman, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court.

“A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another”; this is the definition of a “slave”. Over a span of 400 years 12 million Africans were captured, brought to the “New World” by approximately 40,000 ships and then enslaved. That’s 80 or more slaves per day. The perspective of white Southerners, Northerners and persons of color has evolved and are different.