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Summary Of Abina And The Important Men By Olaudah Equiano

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Analysis of Abina Mansah v. Quimina Eddoo
As argued by Olaudah Equiano, “I doubt not, if a system of commerce was established in Africa, the demand for manufactures would rapidly augment, as the native inhabitants would insensibly adopt the British fashions, manners, customs, etc.” (pg 181, WTWA). Equiano’s vision for a British Africa drove the colonization of West Africa and the creation of new plantations. In this new colony, there was the continued use of slavery until its abolishment by the Victorian empire. To a society who has always seen the value of using slave labor, the abolishment of slavery meant the complete change of their lives. This is demonstrated in the book Abina and the Important Men, a historical account of the life of …show more content…

There was never anyone on Abina’s side except for her representative James Davis. He is willing to bring forth Abina’s case against Eddoo although he is unsure they will win. When it was time for Abina to testify she told the court everything she could to show them that she indeed was not a free woman while she was with Eddoo. She explained how she came to be a slave when she was captured during a war (pg 22). She explained how her first husband Yah Awoah bought her at told her she was his wife. He then left her with Eddoo. Eddoo’s lawyer was able to use her story and twist it so it seemed that she was free while serving Eddoo. The lawyer asked Abina that if she was ever paid for her services, but Abina pointed out that slaves were unpaid and Abina received no monetary funds, but only cloth and food. The defendants claimed, “In fact, it’s pretty obvious that you were paid, in cloth and in food.” (pg …show more content…

Melton invited were leaders of the community and understood the cultural background of the situation. With his new jury, Melton asked for witnesses, especially the people named by Abina, to appear in court and give their interpretation of the situation. There was only one problem of this demand; many of the witnesses were under Eddoo’s control. Many of the witnesses did not make it to court; however, Eccoah and Yah Awoah made their presence known. Eccoah testified that Abina was simply a guest of Eddoo’s and she cared for her as a guest. Yah Awoah testified that he only left Abina in the care of Eddoo while he went to go and care for his brother. These claims angered Abina and she began yelling in court, “He is lying. He cannot dare say he did not sell me” (pg 66), thus making her look badly among the

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Fighting to heard not just to be Free Abina and the Important Men written by a historian Trevor R. Getz, reveals a true story of West African in the early nineteenth century who fights for right to be heard. Abina Mansah is a young African women who although is free is forced into slavery at a time when slavery was abolished and endures cruel and harsh punishment by her slave owner. She eventually escapes and takes her former slave owner Quamina Eddoo to court. The book illustrates her trail and treatment in the plantation through graphic artwork such as comic book and depicts the reality of her life and lives of all women in West Africa. The purpose of Trevor Getz along with Liz Clarke’s graphic illustrations is to share how Abina’s voice, through narration was silenced, and denied the basic human rights of a free

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The authors try to give Abina a opinion by filling in the empty spaces of the court transcript, which was actually a transliteration of what Abina said. Part IV of the book explains the problems they faced while trying to give Abina an opinion. For example, problems like reconstructing the way Abina talked and looked, and decoding the significance of the removal of Abina's beads, were some of the many issues that the authors had to explore and reinterpret in their own way. Abina and the Important Men is, in a sense, a reinterpretation like African oral retelling tradition. With most oral traditions, history is told my mouth and over time stories can change very much from the original and true story, therefore, the authors have made it possible to be able to tell the story in a way that can not be twisted over time.

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Abina and the Important Men A graphic History Abina and the important men is a graphic history written by Trevor R. Getz and Liz Clark. The book “Abina and the important men” tells the story of Abina, a young West African woman back in the nineteenth century who escaped enslavement and then prosecuted her former master, Quamina Eddo, for illegally enslaving her. In her story, Abina wanted to be heard, to tell her story, what she is been through.

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Equiano’s narrative not only open doors to ending slavery, but also gives us some clear insight about the many struggles the slaves had endured. Equiano Olaudah, who was born in 1745, was a member of the Eboe tribe who came from a village in Essaka (Benin) which is now southeastern Nigeria, West Africa. Part of his culture, was having a mark placed on a certain part of his body, which was significant to his culture. According to Equiano, “This mark conferred on the person entitled to it, by cutting the skin across at the top of the forehead, and drawing it down to the eyebrows; and while it is in this situation applying a warm hand, and rubbing it until it shrinks up into a thick weal across the lower part of the forehead” ( Equiano p. 5-6).

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Brian Niswonger Dr. Nicole Pacino HY104 - H09 06 March, 2023 Prompt 1 The story of Abina and the Important Men is one of freedom, retaliation, and, ultimately, injustice. Throughout the story, we follow Abina Mansah as she fights for an escape from the system of slavery that she was raised in from a young age. Attempting to solidify her personal autonomy, she brings her frustration to court, which followed the British judicial process. Because of the abolitionist movement that was widespread across Europe, the civilizing of Africa and its relationship to slavery grew to be a touchy subject within the legal system of the Gold Coast.

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Equiano organized group of people called the “Sons of Africa,” they campaigned through public speaking, letter writing in a large open area of lawmakers to abolish slavery. He also led a group of delegate in support of improving the condition of slave ships, to limit the number of enslave Africans that ships could carry. Equiano knew his life story was one of the most important arguments against slavery. So he uses his own life story to persuade the British to abolish slavery by writing his own life story. “The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano”.

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This chapter addresses the central argument that African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed. For example, the author underlines that approximately 50,000 African captives were taken to the Dutch Caribbean while 1,600,000 were sent to the French Caribbean. In addition, Painter provides excerpts from the memoirs of ex-slaves, Equiano and Ayuba in which they recount their personal experience as slaves. This is important because the author carefully presents the topic of slaves as not just numbers, but as individual people. In contrast, in my high school’s world history class, I can profoundly recall reading an excerpt from a European man in the early colonialism period which described his experience when he first encountered the African people.

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Narrative of Olaudah Equiano As a Slave The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, The African Written by Himself is an autobiography featured in, The Norton Anthology of African American Literature Third Edition Volume I edited by Henry Louis Gates,Jr. And Valerie A. Smith. Slavery is defined as a conditioned compared to that of a slave in respect of exhausting labor or restricted freedom. Equiano was captured and sold into slavery at the age of eleven years old. Usually, in history when you read about slavery you think about the harsh conditions that African Americans endured.

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From mid-15th century to the end of the 19th century, in order to provide labor, the western colonial countries took a large number of black people from Africa to American colonial plantations and mines. Since the slave trade was mainly carried out on both sides of the Atlantic, the western countries generally call it “the Atlantic slave trade”. Although it brought huge profits to the capitalists of Western Europe, it is the darkest period in African history. We can say that the slavery in the New World was absolutely dehumanizing, and it’s extremely cruel. It has caused billions of Africans lose their lives and has had a very serious impact on the development of Africa.

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Olaudah Equiano, a slave in the 1700’s, wrote about his trials throughout his many years of slavery. Equiano experiences many of these brutal times through the eyes of a young boy who has been kidnapped, separated from his family, and sold and resold into slavery. He first stays in multiple regions of Africa and then is transported to parts of Europe and America quoting, "sometimes by land, sometimes by water, through different countries and various nations, till . . . I arrived at the sea coast". (695) His tribulations seem to take him from coast to coast and continent to continent.

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