Africans in America/Part 1/Barry Unsworth on how slavers looked upon the Africans

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Q: How did the slavers look upon the Africans?

A: The slavers, they knew at one level that these were human beings, because they were obviously, clearly human beings. They were in the same image, made in the same image. At the same time, they were objects of profit. And those two concepts couldn't -- couldn't obviously be really reconciled. And they never were reconciled. It was just, I think, that the sense of humanity was simply suppressed for the sake of gold. And the shocking thing is that human beings are able indefinitely (and we're talking about centuries), they're able to suppress the urgings and the prompting of their common humanity, and to call it something else, or to deny it, for the sake of making profits.

Barry Unsworth
Author
"The Sacred Hunger"

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翻译：

Q: How did the slavers look upon the Africans?
	A: The slavers, they knew at one level that these were human beings, because they were obviously, clearly human beings. They were in the same image, made in the same image. At the same time, they were objects of profit. And those two concepts couldn't -- couldn't obviously be really reconciled. And they never were reconciled. It was just, I think, that the sense of humanity was simply suppressed for the sake of gold. And the shocking thing is that human beings are able indefinitely (and we're talking about centuries), they're able to suppress the urgings and the prompting of their common humanity, and to call it something else, or to deny it, for the sake of making profits.
Barry Unsworth Author "The Sacred Hunger"
	previous \| next