Post Colonial Travelogue Essay

Chapter 4, Transatlantic Moment, of Reversing Sail by Michael Gomez was extremely intriguing. As the saying goes numbers never lie. The statistical aspect provided by Gomez of the transatlantic movement was effective in altering my perception of the transatlantic movement as a whole. As the text states the scholarly consensus is that approximately 11.9 million Africans were exported from Africa. Only 9.6 to 10.8 millions arrived alive to America, meaning 10 to 20 percent was loss during the Middle Passage. These numbers show how extensive and outrageous the transatlantic movement was. These numbers represent people with established lives, who were kidnapped and put into forced labor. As Gomez stated serval times and how I now view, the transatlantic

On December 31, 1890 a transition in history occured. New York City would start a new era in the history of the United States starting with the opening of Ellis Island as an immigration depo. This attracted many immigrants to the United Stated because of more job opportunities and as means to start a new life. As more immigrants came to America, it began to be known as the "land of opportunities". Immigrants coming in filled work spaces in industries with the hopes of someday becoming successful. These immigrants helped prove to other future immigrants that if you moved to America then you could start a better life for yourself and your families. On the other hand with positives come negatives and there were many involving

This is a creative essay on Ellis Island, describing life as an immigrant who went to Ellis Island through first-person. All facts and dates are historically correct.

The story that surrounds the transatlantic slave trade is notoriously known, by both young and old, across the nation. This story has not only survived, but thrived as “truth” through generations for several centuries; Although, it is much closer to a mystical tale than reality. In Reversing Sail, Michael Gomez lays the myths affiliated with African Diaspora to rest. Gomez shows the path of the amalgamation of the African people along with their resources into Europe. A path that leads to the New World, that would potentially become the Americas, would ultimately result in more than just the exploitation of Africans as slaves. Compacted into an eight-chapter undergrad textbook, Gomez uses Reversing Sail to unground the history, complexity, and instrumentality of the African Diaspora. He does such in a

     When the first colonists came to America there were not many things available to them. Their life was hard, almost impossible compared to life today. The early colonists spent almost every hour of everyday working to stay alive. They survived because they were committed to making their settlement grow. (John F. Warner- pg.12-13)

P4) Review factors that have contributed to one declining destination (Cyprus) and one developing (Greece) in the European travel market.

Ellis Island was 'the door to America' which was opened on January 1st, 1892. Immigrants came here from their countries to stay in ours. It was a major immigration station for the United States from 1892 to 1943. It has been part of the Statue of Liberty since 1965. Between 1880 and 1900 9 million immigrants arrived in America, which was the largest number of arrivals in a 20 year period. The immigrants mostly stayed in the New England areas, such as New York and Massachusetts. This alarmed older Americans, because they feared that the country and system would fail because of the new 'impurities' in the land. In other words the shift in nationalities. The first immigrants to come to Ellis Island were from Ireland, Germany,

Ellis Island, which was an immigration station, opened in 1892. Ellis Island was a place where Immigrants from all over Southern and Eastern Europe, Greece, Serbia and Hungary to name a few came to have a chance at getting into America. Immigrants came to Ellis Island for many different reasons such as war, drought, famine, religion, and political and economic oppression. Although coming to Ellis Island was one step closer to freedom, the immigrants still had many more obstacles to face. The immigrants had to face numerous medical inspections, and also legal inspections to make sure they were fit to come to America.

“The Slave Ship: A Human History” written by Marcus Rediker describes the horrifying experiences of Africans, and captains, and ship crewmen on their journey through the Middle Passage, the water way in the Atlantic Ocean between Africa and the Americas. The use of slaves to cultivate crops in the Caribbean and America offered a great economy for the European countries by providing “free” labor and provided immense wealth for the Europeans. Rediker describes the slave migration by saying, “There exists no account of the mechanism for history’s greatest forced migration, which was in many ways the key to an entire phase of globalization” (10). African enslavement to the Americas is the most prominent reason for a complete shift in the

The Puritans that arrived in America from 1630 to 1649 prompted by religious persecution made a commitment to the “covenant” with God, whom had ordered the puritans to “fly into the wilderness”, (Reich, 2011, p. 72). This “covenant” was to bind all residents tightly together both religiously and socially. Centered on a common pasture, a village could consist of a meetinghouse, land and multiple family homes that support the whole group or a “city on the hill” (Brinkley, 2010, p. 76), (Reich, 2011, p. 72). The social unit, whom was tightly knit in the early years of the Massachusetts colony, began to strain and many challenges arose as time passed affected this social structure, mainly the increasing commercialism of the surrounding New

The history of the Atlantic slave trade is long and sordid, from the working and transportation conditions to the structure of the trade itself. Historians and scholars from all backgrounds have worked to understand the impact of slavery and why it went on for so long. Two scholars, John Thornton and Mariana Candido, have extensively studied both the impact and organization of the Atlantic slave trade, but disagree on a few main conclusions. Upon thorough review of both sides, however, John Thornton’s ideas regarding the Atlantic trade are more convincing than Candido’s, and by looking deeper into each side it is clear why.

     Religion was a very important part of everyday life in colonial America. Sometimes people were not allowed to question what they were taught, and if they did so they were punished accordingly. Before 1700 some colonies had more religious freedom then others. While others colonies only allowed religious freedom to a select group, others allowed religious freedom to all different kinds of religions. In the overall there was quite a bit of religious freedom in colonial America

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

I remember the day just like it was yesterday, the pale color and coldness of her skin. The sky was clear blue, soft, with a touch of red, and the trees seemed stiff in their bright green shade. The wind was blowing with its humid dry air. And All I could do was stand silently in disbelief, caught up in my own thoughts and calm as I ever been. Wondering what I could have done differently to change the course of time, life had taken us upon. Since that very day a chunk of my heart was ripped away, and broken into pieces… “Oh how I miss her so much.”

I went to Burger King with three friends. We walked a long way then I