Book Summary: Abina And The Important Men

Improved Essays
Abina and the Important Men is a useful resource for teaching students that have no recollection or familiarity with classes that relates to African History. African History talks about the different aspects of slavery in Africa. Also, the novel discusses how women became slaves owned by men as master. The men master manages the women as it relates to their manual labor whether it’s in the field or the homes. As a representation, the Abina was owned by an “important man.” The important man was cutting beads and cloths that were giving to her. The book contains a primary and secondary source that provides a historical framework of the existence of slavery in the Gold Coast. Secondly, the graphic novel of this book helps gain student’s attention …show more content…
During this time, it was critical for Abina because she wanted to be heard. She could not be heard because of her voice silenced by “important men” that were against Abina’s situation. These men were against her speaking because they were allies of slave owners. During this era, the book exposes how slavery was prohibited, although people still found a way to continue with slavery. The slave owner and sellers ignored the rulings of the British system. Owners continue as well to be cruel to their slaves. As a young woman, Abina did not have a right to voice her opinion, slave owners took control over her, and she was forced to do much cheap labor …show more content…
Slavery, in the early colonial, in Africa was different. The slave trade in the West was male-dominated. The slave in the West focused merely on their agricultural goods. The British believed that slaves should work as field workers and do hard work. Abina case was different because there is no knowledge clarifying if she is or not a slave, never been beaten, but threaten. Also, she never saw any money exchanged that she was sold to Eddoo. Abina understood the basic knowledge of slavery and knew she was classified as a slave because her freedom had been taken away and that she was not

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Supporting Point 3 • It is due to her literacy that she survives and thrives not only as a servant but as a human being. Conclusion • After reading this novel the reader develops a new respect for people who went through these hard times, and especially for the struggle the women went through. We come to the realization that slavery is a serious matter and in order to get through it and survive, one must be strong and needs courage in the face of immediate danger. Possible Quotes • “That, I decided, was what it meant to be a slave: your past didn’t matter; in the present you were invisible and you had no claim on the future” (189).…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After making way back home from a neighboring village, Aminata, her mother and a servant are stopped by European slave traders. Forced to fight for their life Aminta witnesses the death of both her parents, “Mama dropped. I saw her blood in the moonlight, angry and dark and spilling fast” (26 Hill). The strong use of personification and contrasting word choice at such a pivotal moment was used in enough detail to make the reader feel as if they are right there watching. By using connotation and denotation in a condensed quote it begins to draw attention to the harsh nature that has surrounded such a dark part of history and makes the reader realize that even in the dark of night, abuse and violence cannot be unavoidable.…

    • 856 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    During the Antebellum period, slavery was ordinary, especially in the south of the U.S. Although such events occurred we are able to read about the truths and perspectives of a slave’s life. In Incidents in the Life of Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs talks about her life and the struggles of being a slave. In addition to her life, the book describes first-hand encounters of events that also took place during this period such as the Nat Turner rebellion and how the character Harriet Jacobs was involved in such events.…

    • 952 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Consequently, the wealthy white people resorted to African slaves since the English were able to control their actions. There was an overwhelmingly number of rules and…

    • 434 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Patrick Bauer 11/9/15 HIST-105-519 Harriet Jacobs Essay In the book Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, Jacobs’ tells of the many trails and hard experiences that the average slave goes through from day to day. From malicious punishments to extreme acts of hatred we see the treatment that African-Americans were subject to as they spent their lives in servitude to the slaveholders. These actions of the southern slaveholders are personified in this book by the first person account of Jacobs’ as the slave-girl Linda who she uses to help us better understand and imagine the hardships that she and other slaves had to fight through.…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The paper I am going to write about is based on the story Abina and the Important Men. This book tells the story of Abina, a young woman, borne in Asante, who was enslaved and given by his master to a palm oil planter and important man Quamina Eddoo. She then escaped from this British controlled territory and sued Quamina Eddoo to the court because she was not free to do what she wanted. The story takes place on the Gold Coast in 1876, but the main scene is in the court room, where Abina faces some ‘important men’: a British judge, William Melton, two Euro-African attorneys, a wealthy African country “gentleman”, and a jury of local leaders. She did not want to prove that her living conditions were very bad, that the work was very hard too,…

    • 1314 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Incidents In The Life Of a Slave Girl This book was written by Harriet Jacobs as in autobiography of her life. She takes an audience roll in the book and names the main character Linda Brent. Harriet writes it this way so that if someone were to read it they won’t know it is her. The book was written before the civil war and since she was a slave, she was often fearful for her life. When reading this book there were several things that stood out as to why Harriet Jacobs wrote this book.…

    • 1185 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Life Of A Slave Girl

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It is clear that although black women do not have to deal with the harsh tribulations of slavery, they still must deal with a society that was built on it and holds on to many of its archaic beliefs. One of the most prominent recurring aspects of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Within the text “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” written in 1845, is the autobiographical account of Fredrick Douglas’s life as a slave which also gives insight into how the 1845th African American slave was marginalized at the time. Before the abolishment of slavery in 1865, the actions responsible for marginalizing slaves in 1845 can be depicted through several accounts in Douglas’s autobiography and regarded as a general picture into how other slaves were neglected at the time through actions such as the withholding of birthdates from slaves, separation from their parents, constant beating of slaves and keeping slave’s illiterate. The marginalization and silencing of slaves is also depicted by Douglass through…

    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The slave trade brought about the devastation of entire African communities; who lost their history and unique way of life, with every branded slave. However, it also created much difficulty for those who wished to maintain their culture outside of their native land. Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes reveals the struggles that slaves faced in colonial lands through Aminata’s experiences, as she strives to remain true to her religion, family, and childhood ambitions. First off, Aminata struggles to retain her belief in religion, both as a slave and as a free person.…

    • 1233 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Solomon Northup: A Slave As A Slave

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited

    She embodies the struggles that all enslaved women have to endure. First, she is forced to maintain her rate of five hundred pounds of cotton every day or be punished while most men are unable to pick a mere three hundred pounds. Second, she is victimized by both her master and mistress. The master assaults her sexually and mercilessly. On the other hand, the mistress, instead of sympathizing with her plight as a fellow woman, subjects her to physical and psychological abuse (Stevenson 1).…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    • 2 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Slavery has always been an awful thing. But It can be denied it play a major role in our history. For the purpose of this historiographical paper I will focus in slavery in the United States in colonial times. Focusing on African women something that many historian agree hasn’t been talk enough.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Frederick Douglass argues in his narrative that slavery dehumanizes both the slave and the slave master generating a dependency for each other. For slave’s, this dehumanization came in the form of having their name, culture and personal identity stripped away from them and for the slave master, the inability to function when deprived of slave assistance. In this essay, I will use Frederick Douglass’s narrative; along with, first-hand accounts to demonstrate how both the slave and the slave master became dehumanized through the institution of slavery. Using Frederick Douglass’s narrative, I will explain how slaves became exploited for cheap labor by the slave master creating a society depended on slaves.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    These two authors, with their decidedly different personal backgrounds and writing styles, offer a window into a time consumed with conflict. While the world was discussing the moral implications of slavery, many writers drew influence from their take on the topic. A woman and an African, neither particularly credited with complex mental functions at the time, both achieved great success in their writing careers. If one has read Oroonoko or The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, it is clear that both of these individuals were incredibly talented with their control of the written word, but they also had a lot stacked against them, based on the common thought at the time. So, what is demonstrated within these works is not only a solid assault on contemporary morals, but conclusive proof that times of turmoil allow the world’s brightest minds to surface and be…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She was raped by him, and not allowed to discuss it with anyone. As an African American she did not have a voice, could not turn to anyone nor the law, and could not speak of the horror her master had done to her because she as an African American, not viewed as a human being, was perceived as nothing much as an object that had full position and control from her master who had purchased…

    • 1067 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays