Did kind treatment towards some of them
make that ownership any less wrong?

Oh, but here they were educated.
Here they found God and were saved.
Here they were happy.

As if there were no darker side to it.

As if, had the white men never found them
among the dunes and forests and savannahs of Africa,
they would have been miserable
speaking their own language,
living with their own people,
and running their own lives.

Who would want to live like that?

"O, ye nominal Christians,
might not an African ask ye -
Learned you this from your God?"

09/11/2003

Author's Note: Quote at the end by Olaudah Equiano in 1791. This was inspired by class discussions on the writings of Equiano and Phyllis Wheatley.

Posted on 09/15/2003
Copyright © 2025 Amanda J Cobb