Over the span of this course we have covered texts that have been presented from the perspective of the colonized (slave) or the non-colonized (colonizer/non-slave) point of view and the different persons in-between the two opposite spectrum. Major texts and readings have included Aphra Behn’s Daniel Defoe’s Captain Singleton, and Phillis Wheatley’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Amongst this collective there has been a personal narrative, a fictional slave narrative, and the tales of an “ex-slave” captain at sea.

These texts carry many similarities between them. As one may begin to understand, there can be but so many reasons as to why texts published 40 to 80 years apart share a sort of resemblance. This resemblance, feeling of familiarity of sorts, lies in the truths (or narrative) of the colonized and the enslaved. The experiences of voyage from land to land, the impact on the governing of the world between whites and non-whites, the narrative of the lack of voice of the enslaved are reiterated throughout these novels.

This first artifact seems somewhat symbolic in this short comparison of life to “art” work.

It is a digital scan from the New Netherland Council Curaçao records of a Bill of lading for 20 healthy men-slaves or Negroes, shipped from Curaçao to New Netherland in the ship Eyckenboom. In modern times today, a bill of lading works as a receipt of freight services, a contract between a freight carrier and shipper and a document of title. A bill of lading is a required document to move freight. What you can now understand that this above document shows that the freight were live slave and/or Negro men. Just like canned foods or any other common source goods, this specific group of men were “acquired” from the Caribbean (Curaçao) and sold to New Netherland. Reminiscent to Captain Bob Singleton’s travels in Captain Singleton, Bob headed to the Canary Islands in the West Indies (also known as the Caribbean). As the story formulates, Singleton ends up on the island of Tobago. Tobago and Curaçao are actually quite close on the map.

This immediately stands out because Defoe’s tale may hail from fiction but the significant histories are still embedded in there. It is not believed that such accuracies to facts are purposely done by the writer in regards to respect to history and literature, rather it seems that the knowledge is so widely learnt of certain aspects of colonization, more so the slave trade. It is common knowledge of the Atlantic Slave trade and the conditions in which captives existed, the relationship between colonizer and the colonized.

The view of the colonized is only half of the picture. There is also that of the non-colonized, the “freed” slave, the white sympathizer, and eventually the abolitionist.

The Abolitionist, or record of the New England Anti-Slavery Society was published for the first time in 1833 under the publication of The Liberator. The New England Anti-Slave society sponsored people to go out into communities of the area and sold their pamphlets whilst promoting the formation of anti-slavery societies.

The significance of this artifact is in regards to Phillis Wheatley’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. In discussion, it can be agreed across the literary board that Equiano was written to appeal to the abolitionist: the type of person who favors of the abolition of slavery. It was a tool for the abolitionist movement. It was written in ways that “softened” the description presented by the slave voice but somehow still kept the truth of the situation.

The above first issue tried to bring a humanizing quality to what were called the “slaves”. After a formal decree of what their society was and stood for, there began first hand accounts of people’s interactions with Negroes. From the West Indies and high talks of the life in Cape Francois in Hayti (Haiti) to letters from different men of position to census polls of the recorded numbers of Negroes or slaves (depending on the state). The journal was an all around mecca of information regarding the Negro and the efforts to re-humanize their image to the white men and women around the United States.

Works Cited

New York State Archives. New York (Colony). Council. Curaçao records, 1640-1665. Series A1883-78. Volume 17, document 61.

Translation: Gehring, C., trans./ed., Curaçao Papers, 1640-1665 (New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute: 2011).A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.

“,” Abolitionist 1 (1833): 1-16