%{search_type} search results

• CONTENTS
• Maps and Figures xiii
• Letter to the Reader xv
• Acknowledgments xvii
• A Note on Ghanaian Ideograms xix
• PART I
• THE GRAPHIC HISTORY 1
• Chapter 1: Abina Awakes 3
• Chapter 2: The Breaking of the Beads 15
• Chapter 3: The Truth 25
• Chapter 4: Life at Quamina Eddoo's House 39
• Chapter 5: He Did Nothing Good for Me 53
• Chapter 6: Abina Silenced, Abina Redeemed 65
• PART II
• THE TRANSCRIPT 81
• The Testimony of Abina Mansah ?
• The Testimony of Eccoah Coom ?
• The Testimony of Adjuah N'Yamiweh ?
• The Testimony of Yowahwah ?
• PART III
• HISTORICAL CONTEXT 95
• The Gold Coast, ca. 1876 99
• The British Civilizing Mission 104
• The Civilizing Mission in the Gold Coast 105
• Slavery in the Gold Coast 106
• The Atlantic Slave Trade and Abolition 107
• Abina Mansah and the Important Men 109
• PART IV
• READING GUIDE 113
• Whose Story Is This? 116
• Is This a "True" Story? 122
• Is This "Authentic" History? 130
• PART V
• ENGAGING ABINA 139
• Gendering Abina 141
• Was Abina a slave? 144
• Sandra Greene, "Who was Abina Mansah?" 145
• Kwasi Konadu, "Was Abina Mansah a 'Slave'?" 146
• Antoinette Burton, "Sex and Slavery in the 1876 Case of Abina Mansah" 147
• Reading Questions 149
• Introductory Questions, for Students at All Levels 149
• Questions for Students at the University or College Level 150
• Additional Questions for Advanced Undergraduate and Graduate Students 152
• Timeline 155
• Further Resources 159
• Abina Mansah 159
• Slavery and Abolition on the Gold Coast 160
• About Colonialism and the Gold Coast 161
• General Histories of Africa 162
• Imperialism and Colonialism 162
• Gender and African History 163
• Web Resources 164
• Preliminary Sketches 165
• Glossary 175.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Winner of the James Harvey Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association, and widely acclaimed by educators and students, Abina and the Important Men, 2e is a compelling and powerfully illustrated "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. The book is a microhistory that does much more than simply depict an event in the past; it uses the power of illustration to convey important themes in world history and to reveal the processes by which history is made. The story of Abina Mansah-a woman "without history" who was wrongfully enslaved, escaped to British-controlled territory, and then took her former master to court-takes place in the complex world of the Gold Coast at the onset of late nineteenth-century colonialism. Slavery becomes a contested ground, as cultural practices collide with an emerging wage economy and British officials turn a blind eye to the presence of underpaid domestic workers in the households of African merchants. The main scenes of the story take place in the courtroom, where Abina strives to convince a series of "important men"-a British judge, two Euro-African attorneys, a wealthy African country "gentleman, " and a jury of local leaders-that her rights matter. "Am I free?" Abina inquires. Throughout both the court case and the flashbacks that dramatically depict her life in servitude, these men strive to "silence" Abina and to impose their own understandings and meanings upon her. The story seems to conclude with the short-term success of the "important men, " as Abina loses her case. But it doesn't end there: Abina is eventually redeemed. Her testimony is uncovered in the dusty archives by Trevor Getz and, through Liz Clarke's illustrations, becomes a graphic history read by people around the world. In this way, the reader takes an active part in the story along with the illustrator, the author, and Abina herself. Following the graphic history in Part I, Parts II-V provide detailed historical context for the story, a reading guide that reconstructs and deconstructs the methods used to interpret the story, and strategies for using Abina in various classroom settings. This edition adds crucial value to Abina's story and the reader's experience. These include: - new, additional testimony uncovered in the National Archives of Ghana - a gender-rich section in Part V that explores the Abina's life and narrative as a woman, focusing on such important themes as the relationship between slavery and gender in pre-colonial Akan society, the role of marriage in Abina's experience and motives, colonial paternalism, and the meaning of cloth and beads in her story. - a forum on the question of whether Abina was a slave with contributions by three senior scholars working from different perspectives: Sandra Greene, Antoinette Burton, and Kwasi Konadu .
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Table of Contents
• Part I: The graphic history
• Part II: The transcript
• Part III: Historical context
• The Gold Coast, c.1876
• The British Civilizing Mission
• The Civilizing Mission in the Gold Coast
• Slavery in the Gold Coast
• The Atlantic Slave Trade and Abolition
• Abina Mansah and the Important Men
• Part IV: Reading guide
• Whose Story is This?
• Level One: A staircase of voices
• Level 2: Silences
• Level 3: Representation and Translation
• Is this a <"true>" story?
• Level 1: Reconstructing Abina's story
• Level 2: Deconstructing the courtroom transcript
• Level 3: Reconstructing Abina's <"truths>" or constructing our own?
• Is this <"authentic>" history?
• Level 1: Local forms of history-telling
• Level 2: The personal and the collective authentic
• Level 3: History as a forum or a temple
• Part IV: Abina in the classroom
• Abina for the world history classroom
• Abina for the African history/African studies classroom
• Abina and colonialism
• Abina and the history of slavery
• Gendering Abina's story
• Reading questions
• Introductory questions, for students at all levels
• Questions for students at the university or college level
• Additional questions for advanced undergraduate and graduate students
• Timeline of Events
• Further Resources
• Abina Mansah
• Slavery and Abolition on the Gold Coast
• About Colonialism and the Gold Coast
• General histories of Africa
• Imperialism and Colonialism
• Gender and African History
• Web Resources
• Glossary
• List of maps and images
• 1) Location of Gold Coast, 16th-18th century
• 2) Language distribution in Ghana today
• 3) Asante c. 1700
• 4) Asante and the Gold Coast in the 1870s, showing sites of Abina Mansah's enslavement
• 5) Page of transcript from Regina v. Quamina Eddoo Further readings.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Abina and the Important Men is a compelling and powerfully illustrated "graphic history" based on an 1876 court transcript of a West African woman named Abina, who was wrongfully enslaved and took her case to court. The book is a microhistory that does much more than simply depict an event in the past; it uses the power of illustration to convey important themes in world history and to reveal the processes by which history is made. The story of Abina Mansah-a woman "without history" who was wrongfully enslaved, escaped to British-controlled territory, and then took her former master to court-takes place in the complex world of the Gold Coast at the onset of late nineteenth-century colonialism. Slavery becomes a contested ground, as cultural practices collide with an emerging wage economy and British officials turn a blind eye to the presence of underpaid domestic workers in the households of African merchants. The main scenes of the story take place in the courtroom, where Abina strives to convince a series of "important men"-a British judge, two Euro-African attorneys, a wealthy African country "gentleman, " and a jury of local leaders-that her rights matter. "Am I free?" Abina inquires. Throughout both the court case and the flashbacks that dramatically depict her life in servitude, these men strive to "silence" Abina and to impose their own understandings and meanings upon her. The story seems to conclude with the short-term success of the "important men, " as Abina loses her case. But it doesn't end there: Abina is eventually redeemed. Her testimony is uncovered in the dusty archives by Trevor Getz and, through Liz Clarke's illustrations, becomes a graphic history read by people around the world. In this way, the reader takes an active part in the story along with the illustrator, the author, and Abina herself. Following the graphic history in Part I, Parts II-V provide detailed historical context for the story, a reading guide that reconstructs and deconstructs the methods used to interpret the story, and strategies for using Abina in various classroom settings. Click the following links to see sample pages from the book:.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Academic perspectives / Rabiatu Ammah
• Practical perspective / Sheik Salman M. Alhassan.

• Introduction
• Contextualizing access to justice in an African setting
• Methodology
• Chiefs' courts as judicial institutions among the Ewe of Ghana
• Chiefs' courts and the law : viable alternatives to state courts?
• Recommendations and conclusions.