Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- 29 Introduction:
- 30 The Expulsion of Dalu ModuA Muslim Trader in Anti-Slavery Freetown
- 31 “Being a Slave, I Was Afraid...”
- 32 Interpreting Gold Coast Supreme Court Records, SCT 5/4/19 Regina (Queen) vs. Quamina Eddoo
- 33 A Tale of Slavery and Beyond in a British Colonial Court Record
- 34 Aballow’s Story
- 35 A Case of Kidnapping and Child Trafficking in Senegal, 1916
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
32 - Interpreting Gold Coast Supreme Court Records, SCT 5/4/19 Regina (Queen) vs. Quamina Eddoo
from Part Six - Legal Records
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 April 2013
By
Book contents
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Foreword Beyond the Printed Word
- Introduction Finding the African Voice
- Part One Remembering Slavery and the Slave Trade
- Part Two The Verbal Arts and Everyday Objects
- Part Three Documenting Our Own Histories and Cultural Practices
- Part Four Slavery Observed: European Travelers’ Accounts
- Part Five Administrative Records
- Part Six Legal Records
- 29 Introduction:
- 30 The Expulsion of Dalu ModuA Muslim Trader in Anti-Slavery Freetown
- 31 “Being a Slave, I Was Afraid...”
- 32 Interpreting Gold Coast Supreme Court Records, SCT 5/4/19 Regina (Queen) vs. Quamina Eddoo
- 33 A Tale of Slavery and Beyond in a British Colonial Court Record
- 34 Aballow’s Story
- 35 A Case of Kidnapping and Child Trafficking in Senegal, 1916
- Part Seven Recorded Encounters with the Enslaved: Christian Workers in Africa
- Part Eight Documents from Muslim Africa
- Part Nine Living with the Past
- Index
Summary
This chapter discusses the framework for understanding a particularly moving document: the testimony of Abina Mansah in the case of Regina vs. Quamina Eddoo. The particulars of the case appear to have been written down by the magistrate, William Melton, in the Judicial Assessor's Record Book as testimony was being given. This record book was subsequently filed away, to enter the archives as file number Supreme Court Records (SCT) 5/4/19. The interpreter in Regina vs. Quamina Eddoo, James Davis, was a well-educated African of mixed parentage and a member of an important merchant family in the region, and might have been expected to act in a similar manner. Unlike the witnesses who accused them of enslavement, the defendants were generally somewhat familiar with court procedures or were able to employ trained lawyers like James Hutton Brew, who represented the defendant Quamina Eddoo and his sister Eccoah in this court case.
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- African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade , pp. 360 - 377Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013