Abina Important Men

Due to the increasing popularity of graphic histories, the story of Abina and the Important Men takes an original transcript and turns it into a colorful narrative. This graphic history recognizes the struggles of the oppressed still facing infringement upon their natural rights after the abolition of slavery in all British possessions. Historians tell this story through the use of graphics illustrated with the use of the original transcript, while providing historical context. Although there are strengths in Abina and the Important Men there are many glaring issues as well. This graphic history follows the story of Abina Mansah, an Asante woman under the employment of Yaw Awoah, who believes she was wrongfully enslaved by Quamina Eddo. Quamina

In the graphic history, it is illustrated how Abina was sent for firewood, water and to the market as well as cooking. On one occasion when there was no food left for Abina, Eccoah exclaimed how a slave like Abina “must go and wash clothes and then come back and cook for” herself, that these were not things Eccoah or her “master” would do for her (29). In the transcript Abina recalls Eccoah saying things like Abina being a person to “go out and wash clothes for other persons not for me nor your master” and “a slave like you” (85). In both the transcript and graphic history Abina was not able to answer Melton’s question of her ‘your master’ meant (29 and 85). These similarities aid in telling how it was possible for Abina to think she was being enslaved under Quamina

In the graphic history, James Davis allows Abina to be his “maid” so she can stay on the Cape Coast and “make a little money” (10). In the historical context, it is found that Davis’s attitude and character are “composite of evidence about other young men like him” (109). The historian uses this relationship to give Abina a friend during times of hardship and someone who can help her during this time of need. James Davis also plays the protagonist compared to James Hutton Brew, who would be known as the antagonist, as he tries to convince Abina she was in fact free in not enslaved like she thought.

One of the biggest parts of the plot is when Yaw Awoah is brought before Mr. Melton (72). This occurrence is nowhere to be found in the transcript and ultimately decides the fate of Abina’s case. The biggest part added to the story of Abina is at the end of the graphic history where she exclaims “it was never just about being safe, it was about being heard” (74). The historian uses this line to interpret how it felt to be oppressed during times of freedom from those who were personally found themselves not having natural