Transmission of poverty and a pregnant girl/ Annie Arnaux
An unwanted pregnancy:
The first to pursue higher education in a family of workers and petty tradesmen, I had escaped the factory and the trading post. But neither the baccalaureate nor the literature license had succeeded in diverting the fatality of the transmission of poverty, for a pregnant girl was as condemned and symbolic of this misery as an alcoholic. I was caught by the ass, and what was pushing me was, in a way, social failure…
An illegal abortion:
I saw a pan of boiling water on the gas stove where the instruments must have been. She took me into the bedroom. She seemed in a hurry to get started. She extended the bed with a table covered with a white towel. I took off my tights and panties; I kept my black skirt because it was wide…
Several days later:
O.’s door was ajar, with a light on. I called her and said softly, “that’s it.” We were both in my room. I sat on the bed with the fetus between my legs. We didn’t know what to do. I told O. that the cord must be cut. She took the scissors, we didn’t know where to cut, but she did. We looked at the tiny body with a big head; under the transparent eyelids, the eyes were two blue spots. It looked like an Indian doll. We regarded its sex. We seemed to see the beginning of a penis. So, I was able to make this. O. sat down on the stool; she was crying. We cried silently.
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.
