Analysis Of The Age Of Slavery

The details, as gruesome as it is ever possible for us to imagine, were not particularly troubling to the people of the age in which it occurred; for this was the age of fear, the age of oracles, of ancestor worship, of 'protection magic', and of dark revenge. It was the age that had not known the existence of other races, especially, the white races; the age that recently had suffered from, and grappled with, the menace of the white Slave raider and Slave dealer.

It was the age of sacrifices to the deities for the safety of the people. The age of want and of hunger demanded bounteous harvests, rain, and invincibility in wars. This was the age when peoples sought other ways of calling on the aid of the eternal gods to remove the evil spirit
And the best defence against this danger, the danger of an enemy launching an aggressive, vicious war against the people, destroying their homes, their barns, and their farms and, indiscriminately seizing territories, taking captives, and selling them off as slaves - for this was still the age of Slavery - meant that action, severe action, had to be taken by the 'tribes' in defence of their peoples, their common weal, and their
The man was Chief Maduagwu of Umu Ode Compound, Onicha. This worthy found it expedient to send the captive to another chief who detained him for the night. That night witnessed a great tumult throughout the land. Much of it was spent sending messages to all the towns and villages nearby reporting the capture of a white man.

At dawn, crowds began to gather. They took the doctor, still stripped and bound, to the nearby large town of Ahiara, where, after he was suitably displayed, caricatured, and struck several times, he was then taken to another market in the Obowo country where the same cycle of insults and beatings were administered.

Dr. Stewart was finally taken to Afor-Ukwu market of Onicha; he was hungry and dehydrated - not having been given any food or water throughout the day, and under the harsh tropical sun of that year’s harmattan season. He had begun to show signs of delirium from evident heat stroke. According to surviving witness records, he was badly treated. H. M. Douglas's despatch to the Colonial Office stated…

"During the tour round the markets which lasted nearly all day, he was kept without food or water although he repeatedly made signs for it; also, he was incessantly ill-treated…. (and)