The latest part of the book
that I read is up to page three hundred and eighteen. Throughout the book,
innumerous immoralities, discrepancies, and human violations have been
presented. I think though, that the biggest discrepancy that stood out to me as
an issue in this book is the lack of regard for human life for people different
from the leaders of the colonial world, embodied in the slave trade.
There was no need to keep a
promise, respect, or even listen to someone who was a slave. There were no
rules on fair treatment or wages for slaves. This sense of self-entitlement and
greed that drove this mistreatment of people, is a major issue within the book.
However, a question arose from this: what made the European settlers believe
they were so superior? What made them feel they were on the "moral high
ground?" So, the main issue in my book that I am looking into is: how
people can justify evil in their own actions.
To search into these issues
deeper, I found some references to Carl Von Linnaeus, who first began
anthropology in the mid eighteenth century. He began to class all people based
on appearances, and ascribed personalities to the appearances as well. For
example, one of Linnaeus’ writings states: "Homo Europaeus as white,
fickle, sanguine, blue-eyed, gentle and governed by laws...Homo After as black,
phlegmatic, cunning, lazy, lustful, careless, and governed by caprice." (qtd.
in NALIS 3) This is an early example of racial discrimination, but is also one
of the reasons that Europeans believed that they were better than the Africans.
They needed economy, and cheap work, and according to their experts, the
Africans needed saving from themselves. This was their method of justification,
and it isn't uncommon. Throughout history, every country or person who has
committed an immoral act has had some sort of justification for it in their own
minds.
The problem described above
was shown several times within The Book Of Negroes. It was shown in the
people running the slave trade, who believed they were providing a service to
rich Americans, and saving the Africans in the process by converting them to
Christianity. It was shown in those who believed that Aminata couldn’t do
anything because she was both a woman and an African American, “The man with
the sunburn was astonished to find himself checkmated and enraged to see Lindo
turn the guineas over to me” (Hill 243). It was shown in the discrimination
that was apparent throughout the whole book.
The
dictionary describes this under self-justification: “the act or an instance of
making excuses for oneself” (Merriam-Webster). This is a major problem in both
today’s society and back in the seventeen hundreds, and was presented mainly in
the third portion, dealing with Meena’s escape to freedom from her slave owner.
“The Slave Trade: How and
Why It Started.” National Library and
Information System Authority. n.p., n.d. Web. April 17 2015. Retrieved from
http://www.nalis.gov.tt/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7eYHyaW4IAY=
“Self Justification”
Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster,
2015. Web. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-justification
Hill, Lawrence. The
Book Of Negroes. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2007. Print.
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