At the centre of this rebellion was a man today known as Spartacus. Spartacus was Thracian by birth and was believed to have been a warrior among the tribes that roamed Eastern Europe (evident in his military tactics, moving his men around as to exploit the weakness of the slow-paced Roman forces) who was arrested and sold into slavery as a punishment for desertion. Some evidence of this is seen in a fresco located in Pompeii, where Spartacus is on horseback fighting a duel with another man on horseback (mid-first century B.C). It’s said that he and his wife were sold to a man by the name of Lantuslus Batiate, at the slave markets of Rome in 73 B.C. He was then sent to the city of Capua and enrolled in his master’s gladiator school.
Hal Wang Miss Cummings English 12 December 27, 2013 The Book of Negroes truly relates to history The Atlantic slave trade which took place from the 16th to the 19th centuries is able to be viewed as a symbol of inhumanity, barbarity and humans’ desires of money. During the trade, a number of Africans were kidnapped, enslaved and constrainedly transported to the Americas. In the Book of Negroes, a historical fiction which is written by Lawrence Hill, diverse distressing events that the main character, Aminata suffers likewise truly exist in real history. Enslaved Africans were veritably transported by vessels; the experiences of slaves in both the book and actual history are dreadful. In the book, enslaved Africans are crudely treated in white owners’ plantations; furthermore, the conditions of salves are inferior in real history.
Devon Williams September, 2013 2013FA-HIST-1301-81008 Was John Brown A Hero or A Murderer? John Brown was a radical American abolitionist who believed in the violent overthrow of the slavery system and orchestrated the infamous (and unsuccessful) 1859 raid on Harper’s Ferry federal arsenal which resulted in his capture and sentencing to death by hanging that same year. Historians agree that Brown’s actions greatly contributed to the start of the civil war and his raid further revealed the division between the North and South. He is often recognized as “America’s first domestic Terrorist”. Brown was born in 1800 in Torrington, Connecticut to an extremely religious and abolitionist family where he first began forming his anti-slavery views.
For some unknown reasons, he deserted the army but was captured and sold into slavery, eventually purchased by Lentulus Batiatus and trained at his gladiatorial school in Capua. With the dream of becoming a free man, in 73 BC, he escaped together with other 70 or so gladiators, seizing the knives and a wagon full of weapons, and took refuge on Mount Vesuvius, where he was joined by large numbers of escaped slaves. His chief aides were gladiators from Gaul, named Crixus and Oenomaus. After defeating two forces of legionary cohorts, he wanted to lead his men across the Alps to flee Italy, but the Gauls and Germans, led by Crixus, wanted to stay and plunder, thus getting separated from Spartacus. In 72 BC, Spartacus had raised about 70,000 slaves.
There is a record of 8 petitions during Revolutionary War period. Gabriel Prosser’s Rebellion, the most politicized of all the slave rebels, formulated his plans during the divisive election of 1800, when Federalists and Republicans threatened to take up arms against one another. The rebels in the Tidewater area of Virginia, despite the memory of the repression that followed Gabriel's death, began to organize again during the chaos of the War of 1812. Most of all, slaves, who well knew what they were up against and rarely contemplated suicidal ventures, plotted for their freedom only when safer avenues had been closed to them. For most of the seventeenth century, for example, when the high death rate in the southern colonies made inexpensive white indentured servants far more numerous than costly African slaves, enterprising bondpersons relied more on self-purchase than the sword.
From what the American sailors could see, the slaves freed themselves, took the machetes found on the cargo of the ship, and rioted and many of slave traders on-board where assassinated. American authorities took charge of the ship, and made it sail to American territory. When they got to New York City, translators spoke with the remaining crew of the ship; and thus the story the sailors lived unfolded: The slaves were acquired on Havana City, Cuba by the captain. The slaves were bought from a well-known slave trader that had already a big influence on the market; Mr. Shaw (after the declaration of the sailors, “Mr. Shaw” is being looked for by the authorities, with a warrant of arrest for ilegal trading).
In both 12 Years a Slave and “Song of Myself”, although black characters are depicted as slaves who are fighting to gain freedom, the film presents a drastically more emotional and surreal depiction of these struggles; the art of film allows for a more gut-wrenching illustration of slavery. 12 Years a Slave is a 2013 film directed by Steve McQueen, it is based on the true story of Solomon Northup and it is an adaptation of his 1853 slave narrative memoir. This film takes place in antebellum United States. In the movie a New York born, free African American is kidnapped in Washington D.C. in 1841 and then sold into slavery. He was offered a substantial amount of money to work with a couple men for two weeks; they proceed to drug him and deliver him to a slave pen.
The book opens in the year 1873, after the Civil War when everyone is trying to forget about slavery, the middle passage, the slave plantations and the physical and emotional destruction that accompanies slavery. The Middle Passage was a systematic process of capturing Africans for the purpose of forcing them to work in the Americas. These slaves were transported to slave factories and were held captive against their will. During the period prior to the American Civil War, and the subsequent abolishment of slavery, slaves were sold from one white man to the next and their worth could be expressed in terms of money. This system of slavery was a system of oppression.
As a young man he moved to Whydah, a small town in southern Benin, to work the corn and cassava fields. During the fall of the Oyo Empire, he was one of the millions of Africans abducted and sold into slavery. As a young child, I remember the countless hours listening attentively to his story on what took place on that muggy and humid night in Whydah. The African traders came in, raiding the town of Whydah with gunfire vigorously capturing his people and most of his tribe. “Whydah is being attacked by pirate ships!” yelled the town crier, as the drums beat loudly.
Babo, acting as the leader of the revolt, ordered the brutal slaying of any non useful sailors. The blacks aboard the ship become the masters to the remaining Spaniards. Babo begins to use many of the same actions a white slave owner would do to a black slave. Melville shows “this slavery breeds ugly passions in man” (Melville 77). Since slavery in itself is evil, it can be argued that the “evil” actions of someone while under the direct effects of slavery can be justified.