Friday, March 20, 2020

Alexander Falconbridge essays

Alexander Falconbridge essays Alexander Falconbridge, The African Slave Trade(1788) Alexander Falconbridge was a surgeon on several of the slave ships that sailed from Africa to Europe. In this document Mr. Falconbridge describes the living conditions that the African people had to endure during the middle passage from Africa to Europe. What he describes is horrifying and yet insightful about the way the African people were treated and handled. His account of the horrors of the journey became very influential among the English abolitionists.# At some point later Mr. Falconbridge was named Governor of a colony of freed slaves in Sierra Leone, Africa. It was known by the slave traders that sometimes before the African people could reach the auctions, some of them would die from cruelty, lack of food, and a number of other things. The African people were bought at auctions that dealt with the selling of humans. The African people were bought by black slave traders in Africa. After they wee purchased they were taken to the slave ships in canoes. In these canoes they were made to lie down with their hands tied and were kept a close eye on. The food portions that the African people were given were so small that that it was barely enough to keep a person alive. In these canoes, the people were exposed to the rain, and lying at the bottom of canoes( which leak), the African people were hardly ever dry. After the African people reached the slave ships they were divided up. The men were placed in one room and fastened together two by two, with handcuffs on their wrists and irons riveted to their legs. The men were then sent below decks to a room partitioned off for them. The women were sent to a separate room, however they were not handcuffed together. The boy children were sent to a different room on the same deck essentially giving the men, women , and boys their own apartments. However, the living quarters were so tight that a person could only lie on his/he...

Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Meet Janus, Father of Zeus and Roman Original

Meet Janus, Father of Zeus and Roman Original Janus is an ancient Roman, a composite god who is associated with doorways, beginnings, and transitions. A usually two-faced god, he looks to both the future and the past at the same time, embodying a binary. The concept of the month of January (the beginning of one year and the ending of the end) is both based on aspects of Janus. Plutarch writes in his Life of Numa: For this Janus, in remote antiquity, whether he was a demi-god or a king, was a patron of civil and social order, and is said to have lifted human life out of its bestial and savage state. For this reason he is represented with two faces, implying that he brought mens lives out of one sort and condition into another. In his Fasti, Ovid dubs this god two-headed Janus, an opener of the softly gliding year.  Hes a god of many different names and many different jobs, a unique individual the Romans regarded as fascinating even in their own time, as Ovid notes: But what god am I to say thou art, Janus of double-shape? for Greece hath no divinity like thee. The reason, too, unfold why alone of all the heavenly one thou doest see both back and front. He was also considered the guardian of peace, a time at which when the door to his shrine was closed. Honors The most famous temple to Janus in Rome is called the Ianus Geminus, or Twin Janus. When its doors were open, neighboring cities knew that Rome was at war. Plutarch quips: The latter was a difficult matter, and it rarely happened, since the realm was always engaged in some war, as its increasing size brought it into collision with the barbarous nations which encompassed it round about. When the two doors were closed, Rome was at peace. In his account of his accomplishments, Emperor Augustus says the gateway doors were closed only twice before him: by Numa (235 BCE) and Manlius (30 BCE), but Plutarch says, During the reign of Numa, however, it was not seen open for a single day, but remained shut for the space of forty-three years together, so complete and universal was the cessation of war. Augustus closed them three times: in 29 BCE after the Battle of Actium, in 25 BCE, and debated the third time. There were other temples for Janus, one on his hill, the Janiculum, and another built, in 260 at the Forum Holitorium, constructed by C. Duilius for a Punic War naval victory. Janus in Art Janus is usually shown with two faces, one looking forward and the other backward, as through a gateway. Sometimes one face is clean-shaven and the other bearded. Sometimes Janus is depicted with four faces overlooking four forums. He might hold a staff. The Family of Janus Camese, Jana, and Juturna were wives of Janus. Janus was the father of Tiberinus and Fontus. History of Janus Janus, the mythical ruler of Latium, was responsible for the Golden Age and brought money and agriculture to the area. He is associated with trade, streams, and springs. He could have been an early sky god.