A Small Place Slavery Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Paragraph)

Quote #7

The word "emancipation" is used so frequently, it is as if it, emancipation, were a contemporary occurrence, something everybody is familiar with. (3.4)

As you might imagine, emancipation is a significant historical event for the people of Antigua. As we'll see over the next few quotes, however, the end of formal slavery doesn't necessarily yield lives of freedom.

Quote #8

In Antigua, people cannot see a relationship between their obsession with slavery and emancipation and their celebration of the Hotel Training School. (3.4)

Antiguans are free, but they're still forced into working as servants. Sure, they get paid now (though still less than white people), but there are still few opportunities for them to move up the socio-economic ladder.

Quote #9

People cannot see a relationship between their obsession with slavery and emancipation and the fact that they are governed by corrupt men […] In accounts […] almost no slave ever mentions who captured and delivered him or her to the European Master. (3.4)

Kincaid implies that the slave trade required fellow Africans to sell out their countrymen for a payday. Similarly, we see corrupt politicians doing unconscionable things to citizens to line their own pockets—and those of their wealthy, usually white, benefactors.