On Being Brought From Africa To America Analysis

When Isabel exchanges information with the Patriot soldiers and explains what she wants in return for the information, her actions and speech reveal she is determined to return home free. During her conversation with the Patriots Isabel says, “ I am in a position to trade with you sir… My sister and I were wrongfully taken from Rhode Island, and I mean to get us back there” (pg. 102). After overhearing Master Lockton’s plans against George Washington, Isabel decides to take the list of names of those involved in the plan to the Patriot soldiers because she was told they could help set her free. Unlike in the beginning when she feels hopeless and scared after being sold to be a slave again, Isabel has changed and is now determined to seek the freedom that was promised to her after the death of her former

Isabel, is a girl living in Cuba during Fidel Castro's reign and the economic crisis. Early in the book, a riot occurred against the government's unfair rights and that night Fidel gave the people to leave the country without punishment. “Papi had to leave Cuba. Tonight” (29). Isabel's father had been the one to initiate the riot and the police noticed this action. They said they were going to find him and put him in prison. Isabel’s family knew they must leave the country. After they leave the country on their neighbors raft they can finally see Miami’s shore but the United States coast guard begins to notice them. “don't stop rowing for shore!” Isabel’s grandfather yelled to

The rebellion will weather like a vine cut off at it’s route. Cut off a vine and it will grow back, the mayor said. You must pull it out of the ground and burn it to ensure it is dead.“(Gold Buttons, and The Major 89). The Patriots think that way and the Loyalists think another but how do the slaves think of Freedom and Liberty. Isabel a slave in the book would consider freedom as not being a slave. She has been in bondage her entire life, so freedom to her is being considered a person, not property. Also being able to go find Ruth and to live and travel wherever she wants, to say whatever she wants to say. I think Isabel considers being free, having no chains holding her down, and having the same rights as a white man. I know this because Isabel states in the book chains,” If an entire nation could seek its freedom, why not a girl? And if a girl wants to seek her freedom, how could she do a fool-headed thing? Especially a girl trapped in New York? Best thing would be to break into the desk of a British commander steal a pass and forge her name and his name on it and act free. And pigs were likely to fly, Plus, that girl seeking freedom would have to walk. “(Isabel 272) These quotes show what Liberty means the different types of people in the book Chains. Freedom and Liberty can make people do impossible things like having farmers and slaves fight against the strongest army that has never lost a battle. Freedom and Liberty is one crazy

Along with evil masters, I was glad to know that there were also kind masters who saw the good in all; even the colored. These type of people were portrayed by the Shelbys', Augustine St. Clare, Eva, and Miss Ophelia. I was happy that even during the worst times, people like them had the courage to go against the world and spread happiness in the world. However, I found it wrong that calamities struck to only those who did good. For example, due to debt the Shelbys' had to sell their slaves, Augustine St. Clare and Eva both died before they could free their slaves, and there was nothing Miss Ophelia could do to save Uncle Tom from being sold again.

Within sixteen months of her arrival, she was reading astronomy, geography, history, and British literature. Wheatley was able to break a language barrier that had held so many others of her race back. Her desire for learning increased and the quest for knowledge became embedded in her spirit, mind, and soul. By her teenage years, Wheatley was a well known author, reciting poems for the New England elite in homes where blacks could not even sit at the table with whites.Phillis Wheatley made many contributions to American literature. Other than successfully representing and expressing the feelings of anger, frustration, and impatience of African American people abroad, she has paved the way for young aspiring African American writers.

Her problems could be interpreted as chains trapping and drowning her in her River Jordan. “He [Captain Campbell] couldn’t take me. He would not. I was chained between two nations… I was a ghost tied to the ground not a living soul.” (182) This quote shows Isabel is stuck, not knowing what side to favor. They used a simile comparing Isabel and the two nations to a ghost trapped in the ground, with Isabel depicted as the ghost. It explained that Isabel is a like ghost trapped in the ground, not with the British nor the Americans. “The glowing iron streaked in front of my face like a comet… The man pushed the hot metal against my cheek. It hissed and bubbled. Smoke curled under my nose. They cooked me.”(148) This passage clarifies when Isabel gets branded. This part of the story almost broke Isabel’s spirit to fight forward and for freedom. Not like her usual self, she followed orders received from Madame and rarely thought about Ruth and her parents. “I took a step up. ‘Answer me, you miserable cow. Did you sell my sister?’...‘She is only 5 years old.’ I rose another step. ‘She is a baby and you sold her away from me.’(135) During this section of the story, this would be the first time Isabel ever truly got mad at Madame, even enough to yell at her with a rude name. This is one of the larger complications that add more water to Isabel’s River Jordan. Ruth was Isabel’s only family left, and she sincerely did care for Ruth, but when Ruth got sold it put Isabel into despair. It was also the cause of Isabel being branded. “But Ruth did. She giggled, a sound like a small silver bell. A bell tolling disaster. Madam Lockton… pointed her finger at us. ‘Which one of you made that noise?’ Her face flushed with rage her eyes darting back and forth between us. ‘I did, ma’am,’ I quickly lied… Craaack!  Lightning struck from a blue sky; Madame near threw me to the ground.  This was Isabel’s and

Between the years 1492 through 1750 a new world was discovered that was before unknown to the eastern hemisphere. New contacts were formed in the Atlantic world due to the discovery and colonization of the Americas and later African slave trade, which were both very major events of this time. These interactions mainly affected Western Europe, Africa, and the Americas, whose economies were broadened and social structures further developed and altered as a result.

Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with

Isabel Allende’s short story “Clarisa” records the story of a woman, reverenced by the people of her community and who is kind without exception, even to those who wished her harm. “Clarisa gave everything she owned to the needy, ”(Allende 36). Her generous nature and adherence to helping others depicts Clarisa as the model of affection and compassion, who gives absolutely everything she owns and even spends “ the last cent of her dowry and inheritance” (Allende 434). For this very reason others hold her in high esteem and perceive her as saintlike.

“Taught my benighted soul to understand (2).” Although what she fully understands isn’t stated into detail in the poem. What's important is that she feels like "mercy" in her life is, in a good way, is responsible for taking her from home and enlightening her soul. Mercy is now used as a symbol for the Europeans as if they represented compassion, forgiveness and all things good. "Benighted" means to be overcome with darkness, or to be morally and intellectually in the dark. She uses a metaphor to compare her life before being introduced to Christianity to being dark as the night. If her soul is dark, then we know she's saying that, before "mercy," her soul was in cold, unsaved, pagan, or unaware. It could be saying that her life was dull and incomplete in a sense; she had nothing to live for until now. There is an emphasis on her soul to where she explains her soul was taught to understand because she was oblivious to the things that the whites knew before she was taken.

as shown on pg 246, “In this quote she clearly states that she dislikes her lifestyle but finds no other way to escape this punishment then to run away. but she doesn’t only suffer from physical chains. Her mental chains affect her even deeper than her physical chains. She is bounded by her hope to find her sister Ruth who was sold away, evident on pg 132.” “She’s(Ruth) gone,’ Becky said ...’Where’...Sold ”. She also has a specific sense of freedom her from others. So even when she gets hurt over and over again Isabel takes initiative for her freedom. She spies for the rebel group, only to be betrayed by one of the higher-ups. Which later causes her to join the British cause who assured her freedom but is revealed to only take rebel slaves. She was betrayed twice and hurt more times then to be counted but yet she doesn’t give up that sense of freedom. She tries her

Have you ever been misused, or depressed, or separated from your whole family? In the novel Chains, all of these things happened to Isabel, who was a slave girl. Slavery was definitely a dark splotch in American history. This essay is on the book Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It contains information about the setting and how that influenced the characters, the storyline and plot, and the author’s influences.

Isabel wants freedom to find Ruth because Isabel says “Did you sell Ruth? She is five years old. She is a baby, and you sold her away from me”(Anderson 134-135). If my sister was sold I would want to find her but I would not be able to if I had no freedom. Ruth getting sold is a strong reason that Isabel wants freedom and that Curzon is going to die if she does not get him out of jail.

Should she aid the rebels or play it safe and attempt to please the Lockton’s? Prior to her arrest, Isabel thought that being a spy for the rebels would be beneficial and lead her to freedom. After her arrest, Isabel hears that the British promised to free all slaves that assist them. This conflict of interest was memorable, because it showed me that decisions and mistakes I make, although menial compared to Isabel’s, will not ruin my entire life. I think it is also memorable because it shows that Isabel’s adolescence is authentic. Most teeenagers today are indecisive, just like teenagers in the 1770s.

In the last 50 years much has been done to combat the entirely false and negative views about the history of Africa and Africans, which were developed in Europe in order to justify the Transatlantic Slave Trade and European colonial rule in Africa that followed it. In the eighteenth century such racist views were summed up by the words of the Scottish philosopher David Hume, who said, ‘I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilised nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or in speculation. No ingenious manufacture among them, no arts, no sciences”. In the nineteenth