The Negro’s case/Slavery’s Museum on Guadeloupe Island
The Negro population suffered a terrible fate. Some high-hierarchy members of the Church doubted their human nature, setting the conditions for their terrible suffering. Most people do not know, but during the 15th and 16th centuries, the black African continent boasted flourishing and powerful civilizations, a far cry from the Rousseau-like or colonial image of villages with “noble savages.” Crossroads for commerce began in the 16th century in the Gulf of Guinea, which became the largest zone for Negro trade during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Portuguese, Spanish, English, Dutch, and French established themselves in different areas along the coast, and Ouidah (present-day Republic of Benin) experienced considerable economic growth. The forts or trading posts stored merchandise from Europe and enslaved people. They shipped more than a million captives in the 18th century. The human cargo continued until the 1860s, despite the earlier abolition of the trade.
Nothing ever vanishes/ Dani Shapiro
The stars, rather than appearing distant and implacable, seemed to be signal fires in the dark, mysterious fellow travelers lighting a path; one hundred thousand million luminous presences beckoning from worlds away. See us. We are here. We have always been here. We will always be here. That past, present, and future are a part of this pattern; and that nothing ever vanishes
