The book copper sun is a book about slavery focusing on a young girl named Amari. The book starts off with Amari and her family in Africa. After she gets captured and put on the boat with the rest of the slaves she gets taken to america where she was bought and sent to a plantation. In the novel, the settings of Africa and the plantation have many similarities and many differences. Life in Africa and on the plantation have many things in common especially when it comes to struggling to survive. In Africa you have to work to stay alive whether it be farming for your food or building shelter to live in. Life in the plantation you need to farm to stay useful so you aren't beaten or sold to a harsher owner. People in Africa might struggle
to get food each night just as people on the plantation might not be given enough food. In both setting you can tell Amari is trying to stay social with the people around her to give her hope or to keep her busy. Not everything on the plantation is exactly like africa though. People on the plantation don’t even get to use the crops that they risk their life for unlike Africa where you get what you earn. In Africa she had the elder ruling over the village trying to keep everyone happy but on the plantation you are ruled by the Derby’s who care only about making money. In Africa Amari never came into contact with a white person especially not a nice one but on the plantation she meets a white girl named Polly that she is becoming friendly with. Africa had many exotic flora and music but the plantation is bare with nothing but rice. In conclusion the plantation is very different environment for Amari only having a few similarities to Africa. In Africa you are treated as a person but on the plantation you are nothing but a tool to help make your master rich. Amari has started to adjust to her new life and is considered important to Clay which is an important for her ability to stay alive.
In these pictures I can tell who the slaves are because they are dark skinned, I see no white people working, however… I see white people telling the slaves what to do. Large plantation= large amount of slaves. Labor was crucial if you wanted to make sugar. You would need a lot of slaves to work on the plantations.
The first aspects we can analyze is the level of difference between the slavery of Africa compared to the European form of slavery. As these sources illustrate traditional African slavery was quite different on several levels compared to the European form of slavery many are familiar with. Slavery in Africa as stated before can be more closely associated with indentured servitude where the slaves were often treated as a member of the family rather than treated with brutality. According to the multiple sources discussed earlier, a prominent aspect of European slavery in Africa was to the harsh treatment and dehumanizing of its slave it order to keep them subordinate to their European captures. Historians might beg the question why was European slavery different than traditional African
Slavery is a term that can create a whirlwind of emotions for everyone. During the hardships faced by the African Americans, hundreds of accounts were documented. Harriet Jacobs, Charles Ball and Kate Drumgoold each shared their perspectives of being caught up in the world of slavery. There were reoccurring themes throughout the books as well as varying angles that each author either left out or never experienced. Taking two women’s views as well as a man’s, we can begin to delve deeper into what their everyday lives would have been like.
Although the !Kung San of southern Africa differ greatly from the people in the west African nation of Mali, both areas share similar problems. Both suffer from diseases, illnesses, malnutrition, and having to adapt to the ever changing and advancing cultures around them. What I found to be the most significant problem that is shared between both areas is that the people suffered from a lack of education. In the book Dancing Skeletons: Life and Death in West Africa by Katherine A. Dettwyler, there is a lack of education in proper nutritional practices, taking care of children and newborns, and basic medical knowledge and practices. The Dobe Ju/’hoansi have recently started putting in schools to help children receive an education to help them have better success with the surrounding peoples and culture, but there is a lack of attendance in these schools. There are also many education issues in proper sexual practices that would help stop the spread of HIV and AIDS, in a place in the world were theses illnesses are at surprisingly high levels.
Slaves were being beat, sold, and raped by their owners to the point that slaves started to committing suicide because of the lifestyle they were living. Africans always had to fight for their life and come together as one to be able to overcome slavery and take up for their love ones, before they were separated and sold. Many women around this time had to leave and separate from their children mainly because the children were able to be sold as well around this time to whoever family wanted to come pay the price for the child. Africans didn’t really just fight in war unless was sent to do so, they were mostly being held captive as a slave and working in the fields, kitchen, and for sexual reasons as
They were pieces of property that quickly transformed into required elements of plantation machinery. African slaves were regarded as a large, dependable, and permanent source of 'cheap labor' because slaves rarely ran away and when caught they were severely punished. The creation of the plantation system of farming were essential factors in maintaining the idea of slavery. Ironically, the New World was created to find political and religious freedom and escape oppression.
The life of an average white farmer was slightly better than that of a slave. White farmers normally planted vegetables such as corn, or grew livestock like cows for their own consumption. They often lived in small homes that were very low in quality and old.
Another benefit to having the Africans as slaves was because they were immune to most European diseases. They had no one to help them escape or fight against their mistreatment, no friends in the Americas, no allies, and no knowledge of how America’s layout looked liked or even where America was to escape to their homes in Africa, they were the perfect type for being slaves. The appeal of having these people live on their land to care for their farms was to keep an eye on their investments. The slaves would reproduce with each other and the children were held hostage, or born into
African American Hardships During pre-colonial African kinship and inheritance, it provided the basis of organization of many African American communities. African American men were recognized for the purpose of inheritance. They also inherited their clan names based on their accomplishments, as well as other things when one died. Land was not owned in many parts of Africa during the pre-colonial period. It was yet held and distributed by African American men.
Servitude is a usual part of African ritual. Tribes would often use trade to obtain slaves by going to the head chief and trading for livestock. Not only did various tribes trade with the people of their countries, but with the Europeans of other nationalities as well. There were times that tribes would go to war and keep chiefs and prisoners of war were kept as slaves, to trade with European countries. Many times slaves were sold due to being punished, or to rape and other various crimes. Some were also forced into life of captivity. It was common for young individuals to be kidnapped and taken to a home of a common family to work and serve them. Many owners would treat their slaves fairly. The masters would own a piece of property and have an apartment for their own personal family along with a home for the enslaved family. Equiano talks about how many slaves owned their own slaves in some cases. If a family was wealthy enough, they would accommodate their property, meaning the slaves. They were a part of the owner’s family and were as brutally treated comparing to slaves of the Colonial U.S.
takes place in the south, where at the time, slaves were newly emancipated and things are
As I said before in the early 1800’s many were still farmers and there daily life may have looked similar. With long hours of work, and a simple life style however this began to change. As the North became more industrial many worked in factories and mills. Although there was reward working in factories and mills was very dangerous one wrong mover and a worker could end up very hurt. In the northern part of the United States both men, woman, and children worked in factories and mills. There worked long hours and did not get, much pay. Housing in the cities was not much better. Factories owners packed as many people as they could into rooms, and because there was not reliable for of sanitation or sewer systems the streets were breeding grown for diseases. Despite the harsh conditions working families could afford many luxuries that were not available before. Daily life in the south was much different. Although there were some small factories and the south had a booming economy the development of cities was slow and far between. Wealthy slave masters enjoyed many luxuries where slaves did not. Despite the south advertising slave life as better than life in a factory the truth is not quite like that. Slaves slept on dirt floors, could be whipped for punishment and were constantly at risk for being traded or having a family member sold. The daily life of a person in the south was almost always one or the other. Free American born men enjoyed luxury while slaves even if they were American born lived a brutal
African Americans lived in rural and urban areas. The ones that lived in the countryside often worked as paid laborers on farms or plantations and the ones who lived in the city used to work as artisans. Though free, they didn't have the right to vote, they couldn't hold certain jobs, and in some places they couldn't choose where to live. They were even laws that obliged them to be represented by a white person in business transactions and prohibited the teaching of black people to read and write.
An Image of Africa Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad has been depicted as “among the half-dozen greatest short novels in the English language.” Chinua Achebe believes otherwise. In Chinua Achebe’s An Image of Africa: Racism is Conrad’s Heart of Darkness he simply states that, “Joseph Conrad was a thoroughgoing racist” [pg.5]. Achebe argues that the racist observed in the Heart of Darkness is expressed due to the western psychology or as Achebe states “desire,” this being to show Africa as an antithesis to Europe.
The Scramble for Africa was a period of time where major European countries fought over and colonized land in Africa, stretching from South Africa to Egypt. The scramble for Africa began shortly after the slave trade, and ended at WW1, and is a strong representation of the ‘New Imperialism’. The first country to act was Belgium, who colonized Congo at 1885, but soon, other countries such as Portugal and Great Britain joined in in order to not miss out. Firstly, the European could not colonize Africa easily, due to Africa’s giant land mass and the diseases that spread throughout the land. But then, came the Steam train, Maxim guns and new cures for diseases that paved the way for the Europeans to control Africa. Since one of the reasons Europeans wanted to colonize Africa was that they wanted to ‘civilize’ the people, the leader of Germany, Otto Von Bismarck, decide that they have a conference to split the land and not fight each other. Soon, in 1914, nearly all African countries were colonized by Europeans except for Ethiopia and Liberia. Different countries had different styles of colonization. For example, France was less eager to let the African chiefs take control of their colonies than Britain, who set up a African Government to their colonies. Basically, the scramble for Africa was a period of time when European countries colonized Africa.