{"id":252,"date":"2015-11-12T10:55:47","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T10:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cavehill.uwi.edu\/smlibrary\/am-i-not-a-man-and-a-brother-4\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:20:58","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T14:20:58","slug":"am-i-not-a-man-and-a-brother-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.cavehill.uwi.edu\/smlibrary\/search-tools\/special-collections\/west-indian-collection\/book-review\/am-i-not-a-man-and-a-brother-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Am I Not A Man And A Brother?"},"content":{"rendered":"<section>\n<div class=\"container-fluid p-0\">\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"lc-block\">\n<div editable=\"rich\">\n<h2>The West Indies Collection (WIC) Book Review: Am I Not A Man And A Brother?<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"lc-block\">\n<div editable=\"rich\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong><em><u>Tricia Jones<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong><em><u>Book Review<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTitle :&nbsp;&nbsp;Am I Not A Man And A Brother?&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBritish Missions and Slavery in West Africa 1786 -1838&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAuthor:&nbsp;Stiv&nbsp;Jakobsson&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPublication Date:&nbsp;&nbsp; 1972&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong><em><u>About The<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<strong><em><u>Title<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe title Am I not a man and a brother is a really interesting title. It makes&nbsp;the reader&nbsp;stop, and think. Why?&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhy&nbsp;black people were&nbsp;treated the way they were?&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWere they not humans as well?&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWere they not considered a person?&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWere they not someone\u2019s brother?&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tWas I not a man because of the&nbsp;colour&nbsp;of my skin??&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong><em><u>The Content<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThis book speaks about religion, politics, missions, slavery, education&nbsp;etc., but the main focus is the abolition of slavery.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tReligion taught the slaves that they were all God\u2019s creations and so are&nbsp;equal before God but it also informed them that they&nbsp;should accept their current situation and they will be rewarded later on in Heaven.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIn relation to politics new laws were created&nbsp;whenever the slave owners felt uncomfortable about the activities their slaves were&nbsp;becoming involved in.&nbsp;The&nbsp;law&nbsp;enforcers&nbsp;worked hand in hand with the slave owners&nbsp;to&nbsp;eliminate all sources the slaves had to try to educate themselves&nbsp;such&nbsp;as going to church and associating themselves with&nbsp;the missionaries.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe missionaries\u2019 mission&nbsp;was&nbsp;to educate the slaves and abolish the slave trade one way or another. Education was an important factor to achieve this objective. Each topic either helps to achieve or creates an obstacle to the author\u2019s main&nbsp;focus.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe book is written like it is a story book.&nbsp;All of the different incidents take&nbsp;place in different places and different stories with basically the same incidents occurring in West Africa and the West Indies.&nbsp;Some of the stories also took place in Britain, Jamaica, Barbados, etc. The author speaks in detail about what the slaves faced on a daily basis. He gives the reader&nbsp;a clear&nbsp;insight&nbsp;into&nbsp;what&nbsp;happened&nbsp;to slaves in the past. When I reads the author\u2019s words, a clear picture is painted in&nbsp;my mind and it feels as if I am in that gruesome time.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe author spoke about slaves who were beaten for going to church and taking other slaves along on Sundays, the day that was&nbsp;alleged&nbsp;given&nbsp;to them to do what they wanted.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tHe also spoke about how missionaries taught the slaves to read, write and count. They were also taught about the&nbsp;Bible, mainly how it described \u201chuman creatures as god\u2019s creation and so are brother equal&nbsp;before&nbsp;God.\u201d This made the slaves think about themselves and how they were being treated.&nbsp;Hence the rebellion of the slaves towards the slave owners. Some slaves fought, some ran away and others simply refused to do what they were told. These actions resulted in harsh punishments because rebellion could not work only coming from a few. They needed to become educated and unite to fight against slavery and this is where the missionaries played a crucial role.<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tReligion was also a main topic. It seems as if every chapter spoke about a pastor preaching to the slaves, but the slave owners just kept creating new laws to stop slaves from learning about religion.&nbsp;&nbsp;Many&nbsp;preachers on the other hand were punished either by beatings, imprisonment or charges. However the preachers were determined and found new ways to get their message out. The slave owners were beginning to feel insecure. An example would be&nbsp;Hamiliton&nbsp;Brown who was one of the magistrates who was against licensing the house of&nbsp;Ocho&nbsp;Rios to allow&nbsp;Gimsdall&nbsp;to preach. His opinion stated that 11 disturbances recorded in England and Jamaica were caused by Methodist and that he would not allow his slaves&nbsp;to&nbsp;attend&nbsp;the Methodist chapels, for the Methodist could not be friends to the Jamaican and all who befriended them were enemies to Jamaica.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong><em><u>The Appearance<\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"lc-block\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cavehill.uwi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/images\/Ryan\/Book-1.png\" style=\"width: 250px; height: 133px;\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"lc-block\">\n<div editable=\"rich\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThis book has an orange hard cover. It appears as if it was made by a machine, the paper is smooth with medium size letters which are easy to read.&nbsp;On the cover there is a picture of a man inside of a coin on his knees. He is kneeling and it seems as if he is either praying or pleading. However this picture goes really well with the title of the book because it looks like he is asking the question Am I Not&nbsp;A Man And A&nbsp;Brother?&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThere are maps at the back&nbsp;of&nbsp; the&nbsp;book displaying West Africa, the West Indies, Jamaica etc. There is also a map of the West African Mission Field in the 1790s and 1810s.&nbsp;This map maybe identifying where the missionaries where doing their work.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong><em><u>My Opinion<\/u><\/em><\/strong>&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMy favourite part of the book was at the very end. After the abolition of slavery and black people were no longer considered property but people in a legal sense.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThis book was a very emotional&nbsp;book to read. The stories about how the slaves were being punished, misused, abused and looked down on would leave a reader angry. But&nbsp;finally, in the end it was abolished and noted that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t&nbsp;\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The West Indies Collection (WIC) Book Review: Am I Not A Man And A Brother? Tricia Jones&nbsp; &nbsp; Book Review&nbsp; &nbsp; Title :&nbsp;&nbsp;Am I Not A Man And A Brother?&nbsp; British Missions and Slavery in West Africa 1786 -1838&nbsp; Author:&nbsp;Stiv&nbsp;Jakobsson&nbsp; Publication Date:&nbsp;&nbsp; 1972&nbsp; &nbsp; About The&nbsp;Title&nbsp; &nbsp; The title Am I not a man and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":483,"featured_media":0,"parent":250,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/search-side-menu.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"slim_seo":{"title":"Am I Not A Man And A Brother? - Sidney Martin Library - The University of the West Indies at Cave Hill","description":"The West Indies Collection (WIC) Book Review: Am I Not A Man And A Brother? 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