Document 7 reveals how these punishments were horrid and fear causing. Document 9, reveals how inferior they were treated and lost their freedom. Finally, Document 3 shows a clear image of how it all happened from capturing the Africans. All this harm done for thinking Africans don’t deserve any humanity at all. My first example on how deleting our humane feelings caused harm is Document 7 by James Ramsay called, “Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African Slaves in the British Sugar Colonies”.
Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, published in 1794, is a series of hardships from Equianos’ childhood to adult life that portray the transition from his cultural African traditions to the New World traditions. Some aspects of his stories; such as his suggestion of his Christian and Jewish ancestry may seem irrelevant to the reader but they help further his antislavery movement. They are incorporated to signify his view on African slavery. Throughout the narrative Equiano used the tool of signifying, also known as double taking, to further his antislavery argument throughout this piece of literature. The narrative begins with Equiano’s detailed description of the customs of the Eboe tribe.
WR 122 11 August 2010 King Leopold’s Ghost: Illuminating Congo’s Heart of Darkness King Leopold’s Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild is a sweeping and often revolting account of the atrocities of the Belgian colonization of the Congo and its aftermath. Using a variety of writing techniques, Hochschild creates an engrossing narrative which not only unveils a dark chapter in our global history, but also fosters an empathy in the reader to the victims of the barbarity of the time. The story unfolds around the turn of the twentieth century when European powers began to explore and colonize Sub-Saharan Africa. Belgian king Leopold II laid individual claim to the enormous chunk of land surrounding the Congo River and proceeded to strip the land of its resources, including, but not limited to, rubber, ivory, and people using a deadly system of forced labor. Under the ironic and spurious guise of humanitarianism, Leopold built himself an empire in central Africa, lining his pockets and satisfying his egotism, becoming the largest individual landowner in the world, while the brutality of his reign slashed the Congolese population by 10 million people, or approximately in half (Hochschild, 233).
Orwell’s perspective as a reluctant and disgusted colonizer shapes his essay’s development, detail and main thesis. The essay’s first-person narrative, causal analysis and the detail it employs obviously produce a powerful condemnation of British colonialism. However, while Orwell briefly lists the obvious abuses of colonialism---the torture of prisoners, the appalling conditions in imperial jails, the destruction of the colonized’s spirit---he focuses his essay’s detail and development on colonialism’s effects on himself as colonizer, how this system causes his degradation and corruption as a human being. He presents his younger self as tormented by his role in this system, but also as someone who has absorbed its racist attitudes. He emphasizes his “intolerable sense of guilt” (313), but also his contradictory hatred of the Burmese, those “evil-spirited little beasts” (314), as well as his callous disregard for the native man killed by the elephant (319).
He was particularly not very fond of Thomas Jefferson, who he thought to be a racist. In his “Appeal in Four Articles” we can detect the tone and seriousness in his voice right away. This is obviously not a topic he takes lightly. He blasts the institution of slavery right away when he says, “But we, (coloured people) and our children are brutes!! and of course are and ought to be slaves to the American people and their children forever“ ( Walker 792).
He argues that racism is not natural because there are recorded instances of camaraderie and cooperation between black slaves and white servants in escaping from and in opposing their subjugation. Chapter 3, "Persons of Mean and Vile Condition" describes Bacon's Rebellion, the economic conditions of the poor in the colonies, and opposition to their poverty. Chapter 4, "Tyranny is Tyranny" covers the movement for "leveling" (economic equality) in the colonies and the causes of the American Revolution. Zinn argues that the Founding Fathers agitated for war to distract the people from their own economic problems and stop popular movements, a strategy that he claims the country's leaders would continue to use in the future. Chapter 5, "A Kind of Revolution" covers the war and resistance to participating in war, the effects on the Native American people, and the continued inequalities in the new United States.
Adam and Eve, whom it was believed that all of humanity descended from, were thought to be light-skinned by Europeans. Therefore these black-skinned people were thought to be “not part of the common creation ” and possibly “not human”. The English also believed in very real negative connotations associated with the color black. They believed that it “epitomized evil and sin” so therefore, those with black skin must embody those faults. They also linked Africans with Ham, Noah’s son who sinned against him, causing Noah to curse Ham’s son Canaan, as well as his descendants to forever be “a servant of servants”.
Shakespeare's play Othello and Good Will Hunting directed by Gus Van Sant are two such texts, exploring the human condition through the archetypal idea. In Othello, we see a black man driven to mad jealousy, and the demise of his world as a result. In Van Sant's film Good Will Hunting, we explore an intelligent man struggling with issues of his own. In both texts, the complexities of love and trust, and segregation are explored through the outsider archetype. Shakespeare's England was not a very accepting society when it came to foreigners.
Prejudice shatters any faith of justice, equality and freedom in The Longest Memory, and acts to enhance the immorality of slavery and the horrible suffering of slaves. This is achieved through both the emphatic characterisations of the slaves, and tragedy of Chapel's death.Societal prejudice towards Negroes has been a widespread fact in American history. The class of slaves has been superficially judged and discriminated against. 'It is neither extraordinary to beat a slave, nor incompatible with Christianity to wield a whip. 'Even those who considered themselves lenient slave owners such as Mr Whitechapel, committed horrible acts of injustice.
The Scarlet Letter In a time where evil was believed to lurk amongst the puritan colonies, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Author of “The Scarlet Letter” discusses religious mind sets and prosecutions of the convicted sinners. The depth and complexities discussed in this historical fiction fulfills William Faulkner’s definition of a writer’s purpose. The writer has a responsibility which through Hester he shows the intensity of her experiences that she endeavored. William Faulkner delivered a classic speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. Faulkner’s perspective on a writer’s responsibility should portray “love and honor and pity and pride and sacrifice”.