VOA常速英语2019--纪念美国奴隶制400周年（在线收听）

US Commemorates 400th Anniversary of Slavery in America

Four centuries ago, a privately-owned English vessel named the White Lion sailed these waters carrying human cargo to trade for food and supplies.

400年前，一艘名为“白狮”号的英国私人船只在这片水域航行，贩卖人口以换取食物和补给。 

The ship came up the Chesapeake Bay and it landed here at Port Comfort in the latter part of August of 1619, and on this ship were 20 and odd Africans.

1619年8月下旬，这艘船来到切萨皮克湾，停靠在康福特港，船上有20多个非洲人。 

Founder of Project 1619 Calvin Pearson walks the grounds of today’s Fort Monroe in Hampton Virginia.On this strip of land called “Port Comfort” then, the first enslaved Africans landed in colonial Virginia.

“1619号计划”的创始人卡尔文·皮尔森在而今弗吉尼亚汉普顿的门罗堡散步。在这片被称为“康福特港”的土地上，第一批被奴役的非洲人在弗吉尼亚殖民地登陆。

It marked the beginning of an odyssey of million of Africans being brought to America as slaves for more than 200 years.

这标志着200多年来数百万非洲人作为奴隶被带到美国这一征程的开端。 

The first Africans who were brought here were destined for a life of servitude.They had to work the plantations from sunup to sunset, the tobacco fields, the corn fields.They had to work these fields with no hope of ever being free.

第一批被带到这里的非洲人注定要过上受奴役生活。他们不得不从日出到日落一直劳作，种植烟草田、玉米田。他们必须在这些田地上干活，不可能有任何自由。

It makes me feel goosebumps and a sad nostalgia.

这让我觉得很恶心，也很悲伤。 

Historian Bill Wiggins says the first captured Africans had no legal status until the Virginia Colony formally legalized lifelong slavery in 1661.

历史学家比尔·威金斯说，第一批被奴役的非洲人没有任何法律地位，直到1661年弗吉尼亚殖民地正式宣布终身奴隶制合法化。

I just can imagine the sailing into the bay of these chained individuals in a strange land, not knowing anything about where they were.Being taken off the vessel and told you’re going to work here, you’re going to live here.

我能想象他们戴着镣铐被运往这个海湾，然后登上了一片陌生的土地，不知道他们在哪里。从船上下来后就告诉你要在这里工作，要定居在这里。

Evidence from scarce records indicates more than two dozen Africans were aboard the White Lion.

稀缺记录的证据表明，有超过24名非洲人登上了“白狮”号。 

Weeks earlier, the Africans were forcibly taken from a Portuguese slave ship heading to Mexico.

在此几周前，这些非洲人被强行从一艘驶往墨西哥的葡萄牙奴隶船上带走。 

These were free people who had been kidnapped as free people and sold into slavery.

他们都是自由人，被绑架的自由人，然后被卖为奴隶。 

Two enslaved Africans named Anthony and Isabella, likely from Angola and baptized Catholic, were taken off the White Lion when it reached the shores of Port Comfort.

有两个被奴役的非洲人，名叫安东尼和伊莎贝拉，很可能来自安哥拉，他们接受了天主教徒的洗礼。当“白狮”到达康福特港的海岸时，他们从“白狮”号上被带了下来。

These are the sacred lands of our ancestors. When I walked this land I think about Antony and Isabella, I think about what were they thinking about getting off a ship in a strange land.This is ground zero. This is the beginning of the African imprint on America.

这是我们祖先的圣地。当我走在这片土地上的时候，我想到了安东尼和伊莎贝拉，我想到了他们从船上来到一个陌生地方时的感想。这是完全未知的土地，也是非洲在美国留下烙印的开始。

The first Africans were sold or traded to wealthy white plantation owners in Hampton and the Jamestown Settlement which became the Virginia Colony.

第一批非洲人被出售或交易给汉普顿和后来成为弗吉尼亚殖民地的詹姆斯敦定居点富有的白人种植主。

A few days after the White Lion landed in Virginia, another ship the Treasure arrived carrying a few slaves, including one named Angela.

在“白狮”号登陆弗吉尼亚几天后，另一艘船“宝藏”号，也载着一些奴隶抵达了，其中包括一个叫安吉拉的奴隶。

Angela, interestingly, is the only African whose name was actually written in the records in 1620 that survived.Now there may have been other names mentioned, but those records did not survive.

有趣的是，“安吉拉”是唯一一个在1620年记录在案并保存下来的非洲人名字。当时可能还记录了其他名字，但都遗失了。

Archeologists say Angela spent part of her life in Jamestown Settlement, now a National Park where archaeologists are trying to unearth clues about her life.

考古学家说安吉拉一生中的一部分时间都是在詹姆斯敦定居点度过的。这里现在是一个国家公园，考古学家正试图在这里发掘她生活的线索。

With Angela, we can tell the much broader story of slavery and the beginnings of slavery in our country and racism which really went hand in hand with slavery,and at the same time give Angela, through our imagination, some sense of identity, some sense of dignity.

从安吉拉上身我们可以发现更广泛的奴隶制往事、我们国家奴隶制以及真正与奴隶制联系在一起的种族主义的起源，同时通过我们的想象，还可以给安吉拉一些认同感和尊严感。

And it was Angela and so many others that made the colonists prosperous.

正是安吉拉和其他许多奴隶给殖民者带来了繁荣。 

They did most of the work and a number of them obviously died in the process,but we owe a debt to those Africans because they were the foundation of the economic development of what became the United States of America.

他们承担了大部分的劳作，很多人都死于这个过程，我们显然对他们有所亏欠，因为他们是美利坚合众国经济发展的基础。

Slavery began in Virginia and it was at this site where the first actions to end the system took place.

奴隶制开始于弗吉尼亚州，也就是在这个地方，打响了结束奴隶制的第一枪。 

During the Civil War, three runaway slaves working for the Confederate Army fled to Fort Monroe, seeking sanctuary from the Union troops there.Union Army Major General Benjamin Butler declared the slaves as contraband or seized goods.That decision eventually provided protection to thousands who sought freedom at Fort Monroe and laid the groundwork for an even broader measure.

南北战争期间，三名为南方军工作的奴隶逃到门罗堡，向那里的联邦军寻求庇护。联邦陆军少将本杰明·巴特勒宣布奴隶为违禁品或扣押货物。这一决定最终为在门罗堡寻求自由的数千名奴隶提供了保护，并为更广泛的措施奠定了基础。

They forced the federal government in Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation,which subsequently led of course to the Thirteenth Amendment ending enslavement, and paved the way for the 14th amendment which provided citizenship in 1868.

他们促使林肯领导的联邦政府发布了《解放宣言》，促成了终结奴隶制的第十三修正案，并为1868年给黑人提供公民身份的第十四修正案打下了基础。

Fort Monroe now is a National Monument majestic grounds that future generations can explore to learn more about the early history of an emerging nation.

门罗堡现在是一座国家纪念碑，它雄伟壮观，后代可以在这里探索更多关于一个新兴国家早期历史的知识。