| Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery Contributor(s): Cugoano, Quobna Ottobah (Author), Carretta, Vincent (Introduction by) |
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ISBN: 0140447504 ISBN-13: 9780140447507 Publisher: Penguin Group OUR PRICE: $14.40 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: February 1999 Annotation: Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, whom Henry Louis Gates has dubbed the "invisible man" of the eighteenth century, was born in Africa around 1757 and sold into slavery as a boy. He was brought to England in 1772, just months after the historic Somerset case that abolished slavery in England, and was thereby emancipated. However, as he knew all too well, the slave trade persisted throughout the British Empire and the rest of Europe. Thoughts and Sentiments, the most radical assault published by a writer of African descent on slavery, was his response to the hypocrisy of Enlightenment Europe's attitude toward the evil institution. After a brief account of his early life, Cugoano launches an invective against the evils of slavery. He closes with a plea for the immediate emancipation of all slaves throughout the Empire, and for British efforts to quash the slave trade in other European countries. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Slavery - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - African American Studies |
| Dewey: 306.362 |
| LCCN: 98041172 |
| Series: Penguin Classics |
| Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5.02" W x 7.68" (0.36 lbs) 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: A freed slave's daring assertion of the evils of slavery 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 rigors; 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. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. |