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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Slavery Saga1 Lives On in Connecticut
In 1839, African slaves bound for a Cuban sugar plantation2 escaped their shackles3.
They killed the captain and cook aboard the schooner4 Amistad and ordered their two slavemasters to sail to Africa. Instead, the slavers steered5 the ship into U.S. waters.
The slaves were recaptured off Long Island and tried for murder in the northeastern state of Connecticut - one of the few northern states that still permitted slavery.
Now, the Custom House Maritime6 Museum in New London, Connecticut, offers a permanent exhibition on the saga.
It tells the story of the criminal and appellate trials of the mutinous7 slaves, including their leader, Cinque, a 26-year-old Mende tribesman from what is now Sierra Leone.
The trials became the rallying cry for abolitionists as various courts decided8 whether they were pirates, murderers or simply property. If property, how could they be guilty of crimes?
The case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme9 Court, where none other than former president John Quincy Adams took up the slaves’ defense10.
But the U.S. attorney general argued that the Africans should be sent to Cuba - the Amistad’s destination - as the property of Spain.
Almost two years after the 38 slaves aboard the Amistad had been captured, six of seven justices voted to free them.
But they were far from home. Abolitionists raised money for their return to Africa. Cinque made it back to his village in Africa, only to find that his entire family had also been captured and sold to owners and nations unknown.
The Amistad tale has become almost a cottage industry in Connecticut. In addition to the maritime museum exhibit in New London, there are tours of the trial sites and places where the slaves were jailed.
And Mystic Seaport11 on Long Island Sound has built a replica12 of the Amistad, aboard which visitors can visualize13 life on a slave vessel14 more than 170 years ago.
1 saga | |
n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事,英雄传奇 | |
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2 plantation | |
n.种植园,大农场 | |
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3 shackles | |
手铐( shackle的名词复数 ); 脚镣; 束缚; 羁绊 | |
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4 schooner | |
n.纵帆船 | |
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5 steered | |
v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 );操纵;控制;引导 | |
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6 maritime | |
adj.海的,海事的,航海的,近海的,沿海的 | |
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7 mutinous | |
adj.叛变的,反抗的;adv.反抗地,叛变地;n.反抗,叛变 | |
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8 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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9 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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10 defense | |
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩 | |
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11 seaport | |
n.海港,港口,港市 | |
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12 replica | |
n.复制品 | |
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13 visualize | |
vt.使看得见,使具体化,想象,设想 | |
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14 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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