THE SLAVE TRADE
Four hundred years ago no negroes were to be found in this western hemisphere, we were to be found exclusively in Africa. Just about that time a large number of white people (called colonists) settled in America. They desired laborers to help them in the country's developement. They turned to Asia and were unable to use the yellow man. At that time a man named John Hawkins asked permission of Queen Elizabeth of England to take the blacks from Africa into her colonies of America and the west Indies and use them in their developement. The queen asked, "what consideration will you give them?" Hawkins said "they will be civilized and Christenized in the colonies, for in their own country they are savages and barbarians."
Under these pretenses the British Queen signed a charter empowering John Hawkins and others to remove from Africa millions of our fore-parents-men,women and cildren-who were sold in the slave markets of the Southern States of America and the West Indies. Parents were separated from children, husbands from wives. All scattered in this Western Hemisphere to work in the cotton fields of the Southern States of America and the sugar plantations of the West Indies.
The Negroes who were sold in the West Indies remained as slaves for two hundred and thirty years and those sold in America for two hundred and fifty years. The West Indian Negros were emancipated eighty five years ago by Queen Victoria of England, and the American Negroes fifty eight years ago by Abraham Lincoln.
We-the Negroes in this Western Hemisphere are descendants of those Africans who were enslaved and transported to these shores, where they suffered, bled and died to make us what we are today-Civilized Christian free men. Should we not , therefore, turn our eyes towards Africa, our ancestral home and free it from the thraldom of alien oppression and exploitation?
Marcus Moriah Garvey
Under these pretenses the British Queen signed a charter empowering John Hawkins and others to remove from Africa millions of our fore-parents-men,women and cildren-who were sold in the slave markets of the Southern States of America and the West Indies. Parents were separated from children, husbands from wives. All scattered in this Western Hemisphere to work in the cotton fields of the Southern States of America and the sugar plantations of the West Indies.
The Negroes who were sold in the West Indies remained as slaves for two hundred and thirty years and those sold in America for two hundred and fifty years. The West Indian Negros were emancipated eighty five years ago by Queen Victoria of England, and the American Negroes fifty eight years ago by Abraham Lincoln.
We-the Negroes in this Western Hemisphere are descendants of those Africans who were enslaved and transported to these shores, where they suffered, bled and died to make us what we are today-Civilized Christian free men. Should we not , therefore, turn our eyes towards Africa, our ancestral home and free it from the thraldom of alien oppression and exploitation?
Marcus Moriah Garvey
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