Click2History - Slave Voices - Chapter 3

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>SLAVE VOICES</p> <p><font size=4>CHAPTER 3 - KIDNAPPED AFRICANS</font></p> </font> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">"Slavers" used inhuman <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/cph/3a30000/3a32000/3a32400/3a32403r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>devices</b></a> to control their victims while ships bound for the "new world" were <a href="http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/odyssey/archive/01/0120001r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>crowded</b></a> and <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1h310b.html" target="_blank"><b>foul</b></a>.</p> <p>What was it like for an African child who had been kidnapped from his home and country and made to do the white man’s bidding? <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/ody/ody0201/0201002r.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Olaudah Equiano</b></a>, born in 1745 in what is now Nigeria, answered that question. He was a chief’s son and one of the <a href="http://pages.britishlibrary.net/brycchan.carey/cugoano/index.htm" target="_blank"><b>first Africans</b></a> who lived <a href="http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35lepIs0K3/5avmWdhIVfKu2YbUTMV5uszDlYOns0NKvoiQxEVQ1i/LfHBbyjH6FLP9vc=" target="_blank"><b>through slavery</b></a> and <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/ody/ody0201/0201003.gif" target="_blank"><b>wrote</b></a> about it.</p> <p><a href="http://lookinside-images.amazon.com/Qffs+v35lepkV4sQ0ZV4zoKzX/m8XgoQRpCE/GQC93VkU9zUZ5LELCvQLt01F8vTJRHi9VKa2ZU=" target="_blank"><b>His book</b></a>, initially published in 1789, <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/ody/ody0201/0201037.gif" target="_blank"><b>describes</b></a> life in his own country and recounts the horrors of his "<a href="http://www.tmpf.org/history.htm" target="_blank"><b>middle passage</b></a>" and decades of bondage. He later became the leading black abolitionist in Britain. (Thanks to the Library of Congress, you can read an early edition of <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbcmisc&fileName=ody/ody0201/ody0201page.db&recNum=38&itemLink=%2Fammem%2Faaohtml%2Fexhibit%2Faopart2.html%230201&linkText=9" target="_blank"><b>his <i>Narrative</i></b></a> by following this link.)</p> <p>Equiano asks compelling questions:</p><ul> <li>How could it be reasonable for white people to <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/ody/ody0201/0201066.gif" target="_blank"><b>consider</b></a> Africans inferior when many “haughty” Europeans were themselves <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/ody/ody0201/0201067.gif" target="_blank"><b>descended</b></a> from barbarians?</li><br><br> <li>"Oh nominal Christians! Is <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/ody/ody0201/0201095.gif" target="_blank"><b>this</b></a> what your God meant when he said do unto others...?"</li></ul><br><br> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="slave_voices_ch2.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="slave_voices_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="slave_voices_ch4.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </font> </td> </tr> </table> </center> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>