Sublime

The transpacific slave trade, on the other hand, remains largely unknown. From the late 16th to early 18th centuries, Spaniards forced some 8,000-10,000 captives onto rickety galleons, where they would endure a six-month odyssey from the Philippines to Mexico. The enslaved captives came from South, Southeast and East Asia, as well as East Africa.

Sugar contributes nothing that cannot be gotten from some other, easily available source. It is a “kick,” nothing more. Yet for this kick the dominator culture of Europe was willing to betray the ideals of the Enlightenment by its collusion with slave traders.

Black Jacks returned from sea not only with these documents, but with good news and good hope. Black seamen, slaves and free,

The Clotilda arrived in Mobile Bay in July of 1860, fifty-two years after the slave trade was declared illegal. Slave traders broke the law by importing captured Black people, either from Africa or the Caribbean, and secretly depositing the cargo at hidden locations along the Gulf Coast. It was a lucrative game of cat and mouse. With the Clotilda,

Et voici que le miracle se produit. Criant et gesticulant les indigènes à demi-nus entourent Henrique, et soudain l’esclave malais s’arrête étonné. Car il a saisi quelques paroles. Il a compris ce que ces gens lui disent, ce qu’ils lui demandent. Arraché depuis des années à son pays, il vient d’entendre des mots de son dialecte. Moment inoubliable