Abina Paper

Abdulrahman Taieb, April. 9, 2013 History paper: Abina Abina's Life A young slave girl called Abina Mansah lived in the British Gold Coast Colony (now Ghana) in 1876. She was born in Asante/Ashanti. Abina had been captured in Asante area, and enslaved in two houses in Asante, the first one was in the capital city of Coomassie at Eddoo Buffo's home and the second one in Asante territory of Adansi20. Abina's life events did not happen by accident. Everyone's life shaped by things or people around us for exmaple family, friends, and culture. Sometimes these things around us force us to shape our life and the way we are. Abina's life was shaped by some forces. Although there are many forces that shaped Abina's life, the most important two are slavery and imperialism. Slavery is an important force that shaped Abina's life. Africa had already an existing system of slave trade, before the European arrival, flowing across the Sahara to North Africa and Egypt to the red sea and Swahili coast of East Africa. Europeans got their slaves from African slaving networks. Some of the slaves went north to east Muslim or Hindu shippers. The demand for slaves in America rose because of the plantation agriculture began to spread. As a result, more and more slaves were sent to Africa's west Coast. Twelve and a half million African slaves shipped to Atlantic ports from 1525(the date of first trip from Africa to the Americas) to 1867) (when the last trip took place) ( WTWA, 495). Moving many Africans to the Americas, the slave trade resulted losses of sex ratios in both places because most of the slaves who

shipped to the Americas were adult males. The Europeans preferred male labors; however they desired female slaves primarily for household work and produce for slave-children. Abina was a slave and that’s one of the important forces that shaped her life. Abina was a slave in her youth (Abina,6). That means she did not live her childhood. She worked and cooked for people; while she