Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery

Cugoano, Quobna Ottobah/ Carretta, Vincent (INT)

Penguin Classics（1999/02発売）

Penguin Classics（1999/02発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 240 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780140447507
• DDC分類 306.362

Full Description

Born in present-day Ghana, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano was kidnapped at the age of thirteen and sold into slavery by his fellow Africans in 1770; he worked in the brutal plantation chain gangs of the West Indies before being freed in England. His "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery" is the most direct criticism of slavery by a writer of African descent. Cugoano refutes pro-slavery arguments of the day, including slavery's supposed divine sanction; the belief that Africans gladly sold their own families into slavery; that Africans were especially suited to its rigours; and that West Indian slaves led better lives than European serfs. Exploiting his dual identity as both an African and a British citizen, Cugoano daringly asserted that all those under slavery's yoke had a moral obligation to rebel, while at the same time he appealed to white England's better self.

Contents

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Vincent Carretta
Introduction by Vincent Carretta
Acknowledgments
A Note on the Text
Illustrations
Suggestions for Further Reading

Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, Humbly Submitted to The Inhabitants of Great-Britain, by Ottobah Cugoano, a Native of Africa.
London: 1787

Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery; or, the Nature of Servitude as Admitted by the Law of God, Compared to the Modern Slavery of the Africans in the West-Indies; In an Answer to the Advocates for Slavery and Oppression. Addressed to the Sons of Africa, by a Native.
London: 1791

Explanatory Notes to the 1787 Publication
Explanatory Notes to the 1791 Publication
Appendix: Correspondence of Quobna Ottobah Cugoano