Adam Hochschild is impressive as an author in his story telling ability. His descriptions are extremely vivid and that makes the book much more enjoyable to read. What has been especially striking is how he manages to contrast the white slave owners and African slaves. His portrayal of the eighteen century white male has led me to believe that all of them are sleazy sinners with absolutely no remorse for their greedy actions. Although this is a harsh generalization, the actions of John Newton and James Stephen offer me no reason to think otherwise. These two men toss out the term “love” carelessly. John Newton longed for Mary Catlett, however saw no wrong in raping female slaves on his vessel. James Stephen, on the other hand, seemed to fall in love with every attractive girl he laid eyes on. Not only were these men greedy with there slaves, estates, and money, they were also greedy with their women.
The question that I want to ask here is: Why do we always want more? John Newton and James Stephen aren't the only guilty ones. Greed didn't just exist on eighteenth century sugar plantations. The same problems exist today, only the playing fields have changed.
3 comments:
I agree with you. All of these men (who eventually wanted to abolish slavery) spent so much of their lives treating people badly in order to benefit themselves. Why such the sudden turn around? What caused them to realize their errors and want to change? And also, why say someone is happy (as James was with Nancy) if they aren't and find it necessary to be with other people?
While i agree with both of you that none of these men showed a particular zeal in their "good behavior" they did eventually find there way in what was a very twisted world. Even Equiano who had experienced and seen the effects of slavery first hand failed to step up the plate when he was evaluating slaves for field work on a ship in Jamaica. The slave industry was so ingrained in the minds of everyone as a necessity that it was difficult to look at it and say, thats wrong. I to am interested in the "sudden turn around" and why the abolitionist movement was able to catch on so fast and be as successful as it was especially with men of this caliber at its helm.
It is true that the men had their wealth from slavery or benefited from slavery, but you have to realize that like Carol said slavery was a part of their society. We won't be able to truely understand what these people were thinking of unless we bring back slavery. However, you ahve to realize fighting the world isn't and easy task which was what these men ultimately did. But going back to chapter 1, I find it ironic that many other figures in history used slavery for their benefit but we somehow are able to overlook these two men's involvement because they were part of the abolitionist movement yet the other people in history helped the world with their money.
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