Abina And The Important Men Summary

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Abina and The Important Men delineate the struggle of slaves to voice their concerns without being discredited. White slave master were more notable than slaves because they occupied higher positions. This led to slave's voices being overpowered and overlooked as if they were irrelevant to society. Due to their insignificance, females in particular were illegally enslaved and were simply incapable of reaching freedom while men were more prone to escape (108). Most Africans supported the British idea of the "civilizing mission" because it was an initiative to bring about enlightenment in the country. Abina viewed this as a way to help the middle class. She stated, "These new ideas celebrated the hard work and free market economy of the middle class, and allowed them to represent these values as more virtuous than those of the aristocrats, many of whom were slave owners” (104). Although the "civilizing mission" …show more content…

Abina’s court case basically was discredited and silenced because she didn’t work in the fields. The consistency of Abina’s attempt to explain what it means to be a slave and the British’s definition of what it means to be a slave complicated her case. The fine line between the definitions of slaves implemented to the British territory was very fuzzy to begin with. According to Abina, “They’re free, but they’re not free” (60). It was easier for the British to abolish slavery in order to avoid arguments and better the economy. They jumped from abolition to focusing mainly on oil exports. The British priority was oil rather than enforcing the new law banning slavery (10). They felt like it was impossible to try and enforce the law anyway because the lack of money and people disobeying (10). Because abolition was put in effect with no explanation and not enforced, people were granted the ability to define these rights

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