Abina And The Important Men Summary

In Abina and the Important Men, lies a portrayal of daily life and operations of the area of Asante and its relations with British jurisdiction, on the Gold Coast of West Africa in 1876. Specifically, it is a story about a girl from Asante named Asina who is sold into slavery at a very young age and her journey to achieve justice. While Abina’s story was not well documented and well known, it’s brief mention in archived stories arose attention for the powerless and the silenced. Through Abina’s narrative and her fight for justice, and the contextual history of African and British relations, the depiction of “important men” their roles and how they impact her life and people like her are displayed.

Abina and the Important Men: a Graphical History was written by Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke. The story of Abina Mansah is somewhat an inspiring graphical history based on an 1876 court transcript. Abina, a woman of West Africa, was wrongfully enslaved and as a consequence, she took her former master, Quamina Eddoo, to court. The overall setting took place on the Gold Coast during the 19th century. The main scenes take place in the court room, which is filled with many “important men.” The men included a British judge, two Euro African attorneys, countrymen, and an entire jury of wealthy, high class local town leaders. This book is broken down into several parts; the graphical history, transcript, historical

Even though slavery was no more in Britain, this was not so on the Gold Coast. There was still slaves here, mainly growing palm trees. With the importance of palm oil being so high the English taxed the oil more because for this rich this was great deal of income. Abina was a slave in one of the regions, she decided one night that she was going to escape her master to go to Cape Coast because “They say that in Cape Coast all are free” . She found out that she needed a job, a piece of paper stating her freedom, as well as a place to stay or the police could put her in jail. This is Abinas’ barrier with the ‘civilizing mission’.

The story begins with a recounting of the story of Tatica, Reyita’s grandmother, and her trial of being abducted from her native Africa and brought to Cuba to be sold into slavery. Tatica’s story sets a precedent that is upheld by the next generations of her family of racial discrimination, struggle for survival and equality, and political activism. Reyita explains that her grandmother’s love of Africa instilled in Reyita a

And in the cases of Alabama, there were at least 100,000 African American men between the 1890s and the 1930s were leased or sold by the state of Alabama to coal mines, iron ore mines, sawmills, timber harvesting camps, cotton plantations, turpentine stills, all across the state. And so at least 200,000 African Americans, just in Alabama, were forced into the system, just in the most informal ways. And there are very well documented records of thousands of Black men who died under these circumstances during that period of time. Stories of men like Jonathan Davis, who in the fall of 1901, left his cotton field trying to reach the home of his wife's parents, where she was being cared for and would soon die of an illness. He was trying to reach her before she died. And on his way to the town, which was 15 or 20 miles away where she was being taken care of, he was accosted on the road by a constable, and essentially is kidnapped from the roadway and sold to a white farmer a few days later for $45. This is something that is named in the book to dozens of people that happened to. It's clear some version of that sort of kidnapping happened to hundreds and hundreds of other African Americans. And again, all of that is just in Alabama, and there were versions of this going on in all of the

One implication as a result of the biggest known migration of human beings in history is that there is little documentation of individuals from the African Slave Trade. As such a familiar occurrence in history, there is little to be known about the individual experiences of captives during this horrific time. Randy Sparks, author of The Two Princes of Calabar, ends the silence as he provides the reader with a glimpse into an eighteenth century odyssey, and first hand account to the trading communities along the coast of West Africa. This trade not only transported people, but the exchange of ideas is also present across and around the Atlantic. The novel tells the story of two young men from Nigeria who are from an elite slave trading family. These men were captured by Europeans and sold into slavery until they were ultimately released back to their homeland. The Two Princes of Calabar offers insight into the complexities that existed in the transracial Atlantic world of the eighteenth century through the themes of privilege, gender bias, and the mistreatment of the enslaved.

Abina and the Important Men: a Graphical History was written by Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clarke. The story of Abina Mansah is somewhat an inspiring graphical history based on an 1876 court transcript. Abina, a woman of West Africa, was wrongfully enslaved and as a consequence, she took her former master, Quamina Eddoo, to court. The overall setting took place on the Gold Coast during the 19th century. The main scenes take place in the court room, which is filled with many “important men.” The men included a British judge, two Euro African attorneys, countrymen, and an entire jury of wealthy, high class local town leaders. This book is broken down into several parts; the graphical history, transcript, historical

While she is credited for the good treatment of her slaves and is presented as a slave advocate, Queen Nzinga was a strong supporter of the slave trade and occasionally demonstrated severe cases of slave abuse. This “slave advocacy” image of Nzinga is evident when World history association member and history journalist Pamela D. Toler writes that “Nzinga encouraged [slaves] to run away and enjoy freedom at home rather than remaining as Portuguese captives” (267). Nzinga’s mistreatment of slaves is lightly touched on in

Slavery was common in the eighteenth century. Slaves were seen as property, as they were taken from their native land and forced into long hours of labor. The experience was traumatic for both black men and black women. They were physically and mentally abused by slave owners, dehumanized by the system, and ultimately denied their fundamental rights to a favorable American life. Although African men and women were both subjected to the same enslavement, men and women had different experiences in slavery based on their gender. A male perspective can be seen in, My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass. A female perspective is shared in Harriet Jacobs’ narrative titled, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Upon reading both of the viewpoints provided, along with outside research, one can infer that women had it worse.

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.

As I entered the court, the trial has already commenced so I did not really know how a real trial started. I sat in the back where the public sits, facing the judge bench. The courtroom was cold and quiet. Especially it was very small, much smaller and less impressive than I expected.. Everyone was in formal dressing code. There were just a few number of spectators and family members in the court room. There was a clerk who was typing everything what was happening during the court time. Judge Krocker appeared to have things under control and had the proceedings moving forward smoothly. She was a very friendly lady with short blonde hair. She was listening attentively. She spoke clearly and distinctly so that everyone in the courtroom could hear. Samuel Gallegos is a white man about 5 '8 tall. He looked quite nervous while some police officers were standing behind him. From what I understood, this case was really happening back in 2014 and the suspect has criminal history relating to assault of child and another related case to this case. On my left hand side were the bailiffs while some others stood observed

During this documentary, the viewers get an inside look at how criminal proceedings work. In the courtroom, the most important players are the prosecution, defense, and judge. The judge is in the room to make sure the proceeding runs smoothly and to settle any arguments that arise. The prosecution is there to accuse the defendant for whatever crime he or she has been convicted of. The defense is there to defend the person being convicted of the crime. There is also a bailiff who is there to oversee the court and make sure everyone there is safe. The bailiff will bring evidence form the defense or prosecution to the judge, as nobody is to approach the bench without the judge calling attorneys to the

The captivity narrative and the slave narrative are two types of literary works, which were very common during the 17th and the 18th century. The captivity narrative usually involves an innocent white woman who is taken captive by an Indian tribe, who the woman describes as savages in most of the cases. On the other hand, the slave narrative focuses on the quality of life that slaves were facing before the time of the abolishment of slavery. Although the captivity narrative and the slave narrative show some similarities, they are completely different. We can observe the differences by analyzing two literary works, A Narrative of The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson by Mary Rowlandson and From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself by Olaudah Equiano. A Narrative of The Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson is a narrative written by Mary Rowlandson herself, which sheds light on her own experiences revolving captivity. The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano gives the reader insight into the life of a slave, the treatments they endure, and usually their freedom, whether it be through escaping or other means. Both narratives usually include real-life accounts, however, the differences lie in the structure of the narrative, the purpose that the narrative is trying to lay out and the treatment of the parties who are living these experiences.

Immediately the reader is made aware that Hartman is physically aware of her surroundings in Ghana, “I chose Ghana because it possessed more dungeons, prisons and slave pens than any other country in West Africa..”(Hartman 7). Hartman is physically aware of her purpose in Ghana: she is here because it contains the most physical remnants of the slave trade than most other countries in West Africa. Hartman know where she will travel while in Ghana, Elmina, Salaga, Gwolu, and she knows she will find the physical remnants of the slave trade in these places: slave forts, markets, roads and castles. Hartman finds these physical remains of slavery in Elmina, the castle that once held slaves before they entered the middle passage, Salaga, the largest slave market, and Gwolu, the wall that was used to keep slave traders away. Both Kincaid in her memoir A Small Place and Phillips in his memoir The Atlantic Sound are similar to Hartman in this way, as both possess intense awareness of their physical surroundings. Kincaids memoir, although dealing with Antigua and not Ghana, contains awareness from the perspective of a native, “Antigua is beautiful. Antigua is too beautiful. Sometimes the beauty of it seems unreal”(Kincaid 76). Kincaid additionally addresses the physical remnants of slavery in Antigua, like Hartman, “In the Antigua that I knew we lived on a street named after a maritime criminal Horatio Nelson...In the middle of High Street was the Barclays Bank… [who] were slave-traders”(Kincaid 24-26). Phillips also provides insight to the tangible pieces of slavery, when discussing

the issue of slavery and the rights of the black man in its early stages as a