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(单词翻译)

VOICE ONE:


This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with THE MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

Today, we tell about slavery, and how it affected1 the history of the United States.


(MUSIC)


VOICE ONE:

Slavery is one person controlling or owning another.  Some history experts say it began following the development of farming about ten thousand years ago.  People forced prisoners of war to work for them.  Other slaves were criminals or people who could not re-pay money they owed.

Experts say the first known slaves existed in the Sumerian society of what is now Iraq more than five thousand years ago.  Slavery also existed among people in China, India, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas.  It expanded as trade and industry increased. 

This increase created a demand for a labor2 force to produce goods for export.  Slaves did most of the work.  Most ancient people thought of slavery as a natural condition that could happen to anyone at any time.  Few saw it as evil or unfair.  In most cities, slaves could be freed by their owners and become citizens.

In later times, slaves provided the labor needed to produce products that were in demand.  Sugar was one of these products. Italians established large sugar farms beginning around the twelfth century.  They used slaves from Russia and other parts of Europe to do the work.  By the year thirteen hundred, African blacks had begun to replace the Russian slaves.  They were bought or captured from North African Arabs, who used them as slaves for years.

By the fifteen hundreds, Spain and Portugal had American colonies.  The Europeans made native Indians work in large farms and mines in the colonies.  Most of the Indians died from European diseases and poor treatment.  So the Spanish and Portuguese3 began to bring in people from West Africa as slaves. France, Britain and the Netherlands did the same in their American colonies.

VOICE TWO:

 
In 1660, Charles II gave the Royal African Company the right to secure a trade monopoly4 in West Africa. From there, the company began supplying slaves to England's American colonies. 
England's southern colonies in North America developed a farm economy that could not survive without slave labor.

Many slaves lived on large farms called plantations6.  These large farms produced important crops traded by the colony, crops such as cotton and tobacco.  Each plantation5 was like a small village owned by one family.  That family lived in a large house, usually facing a river.  Many separate buildings were needed on a plantation.  For example, a building was needed for cooking.  And buildings were needed for workers to produce goods such as furniture that were used on the plantation.

The plantation business was farming.  So there also were barns for animals and buildings for holding and drying crops.  There was a house to smoke meat so could be kept safely.  And there was a place on the river from which goods were sent to England on ships.

VOICE ONE:

The plantation owner controlled the farm and saw that it earned money.  He supervised7, fed and clothed the people living on it, including the slaves.

Big plantations might have two hundred slaves.  They worked in the fields on crops that would be sold or eaten by the people who lived on the plantation.  They also raised animals for meat and milk.

Field slaves worked very long and hard.  They worked each day from the time the sun rose until it set.  Many of these slaves lived in extremely poor conditions in small houses with no heat or furniture.  Sometimes, five or ten people lived together in one room.

House slaves usually lived in the owner's house.  They did the cooking and cleaning in the house.  House slaves worked fewer hours than field slaves, but were more closely supervised by the owner and his family.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

 
Slaves preparing dried tobacco to be shipped to England from Jamestown
Laws approved in the southern colonies made it illegal for slaves to marry, own property or earn their freedom.  These laws also did not permit slaves to be educated, or even to learn to read.  But some owners permitted their slaves to earn their freedom, or gave them money for good work.

Other owners punished slaves to get them to work.  These punishments included beatings, withholding8 food and threatening to sell members of a slave's family.  Some plantation owners executed slaves suspected of serious crimes by hanging them or burning them alive.

History experts say that people who were rich enough to own many slaves became leaders in their local areas.  They were members of the local governments.  They attended meetings of the legislatures in the capitals of their colonies usually two times a year.  Slave owners had the time and the education to greatly influence political life in the southern colonies, because the hard work on their farms was done by slaves.

VOICE ONE:

Today, most people in the world condemn9 slavery.  That was not true in the early years of the American nation.  Many Americans thought slavery was evil, but necessary.  Yet owning slaves was common among the richer people in the early seventeen hundreds. Many of the leaders in the colonies who fought for American independence owned slaves.  This was true in the northern colonies as well as the southern ones.

 
Benjamin Franklin
One example is the famous American diplomat10, inventor and businessman Benjamin Franklin.  He owned slaves for thirty years and sold them at his general store.  But his ideas about slavery changed during his long life.  Benjamin Franklin started the first schools to teach blacks and later argued for their freedom.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

Slavery did not become a force in the northern colonies mainly because of economic reasons.  Cold weather and poor soil could not support such a farm economy as was found in the South.  As a result, the North came to depend on manufacturing and trade.

Trade was the way colonists11 got the English goods they needed. It was also the way to earn money by selling products found in the New World.  New England became a center for such trade across the seas.  The people who lived there became shipbuilders so they could send the products to England.  They used local wood to build the ships.  They also sold wood and wood products.  They became businessmen carrying goods around the world.

The New England shipbuilding towns near the Atlantic Ocean grew quickly as a result.  The largest of these towns was Boston, Massachusetts.  By seventeen twenty, it had more than ten thousand people.  Only two towns in England were larger: London and Bristol.

More than twenty-five percent of the men in Boston had invested in shipping12 or worked in it.  Ship captains and businessmen held most of the public offices.

VOICE ONE:

 
A document from the Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition13 of Slavery, signed by the group's president, Benjamin Franklin. 
The American colonies traded goods such as whale oil, ginger14, iron, wood, and rum, an alcoholic15 drink made from sugarcane. Ships carried these goods from the New England colonies to Africa. There, they were traded for African people.

The Africans had been captured by enemy tribesmen and sold to African slave traders.  The New England boat captains would buy as many as they could put on their ships.  The conditions on these ships were very cruel.  The Africans were put in so tightly16 they could hardly move.  Some were chained.  Many killed themselves rather than live under such conditions. 

Others died of sicknesses they developed on the ship.  Yet many did survive the trip, and became slaves in the southern colonies, or in the Caribbean islands.  Black slaves were needed to work on Caribbean sugar plantations.  The southern American colonies needed them to work on the tobacco and rice plantations.

By seventeen fifty, almost twenty-five percent of the total number of people in the American colonies were black slaves. From the fifteen hundreds to the eighteen hundreds, Europeans sent about twelve million black slaves from Africa to America. Almost two million of them died on the way.

VOICE TWO:

History experts say English ships carried the greatest number of Africans into slavery.  One slave ship captain came to hate what he was doing, and turned to religion.  His name was John Newton.  He stopped taking part in slave trade and became a leader in the Anglican Church.  He is famous for having written this song, "Amazing Grace".


(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson.  This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long.  Join us again next week for another Special English program about the history of the United States.

 


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 affected TzUzg0     
adj.不自然的,假装的
参考例句:
  • She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
  • His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。
2 labor P9Tzs     
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
参考例句:
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
3 Portuguese alRzLs     
n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语
参考例句:
  • They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
  • Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。
4 monopoly b64zg     
n.垄断,专卖,垄断物(商品),专卖商品
参考例句:
  • His monopoly of shipbuilding in that country has been established.他对那个国家造船业的垄断已经建立起来。
  • In many countries,tobacco is a government monopoly.在许多国家,烟草由政府专营。
5 plantation oOWxz     
n.种植园,大农场
参考例句:
  • His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
  • The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。
6 plantations ee6ea2c72cc24bed200cd75cf6fbf861     
n.种植园,大农场( plantation的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园,使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
  • Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后,那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句
7 supervised cec2158311659e4fa817f25aad310c2f     
v.监督,管理( supervise的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The architect supervised the building of the house. 建筑工程师监督房子的施工。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He supervised and trained more than 400 volunteers. 他指导和培训了400多名志愿者。 来自辞典例句
8 withholding 7eXzD6     
扣缴税款
参考例句:
  • She was accused of withholding information from the police. 她被指控对警方知情不报。
  • The judge suspected the witness was withholding information. 法官怀疑见证人在隐瞒情况。
9 condemn zpxzp     
vt.谴责,指责;宣判(罪犯),判刑
参考例句:
  • Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他,而有些人谴责他。
  • We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。
10 diplomat Pu0xk     
n.外交官,外交家;能交际的人,圆滑的人
参考例句:
  • The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话,紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
  • He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。
11 colonists 4afd0fece453e55f3721623f335e6c6f     
n.殖民地开拓者,移民,殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Colonists from Europe populated many parts of the Americas. 欧洲的殖民者移居到了美洲的许多地方。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Some of the early colonists were cruel to the native population. 有些早期移居殖民地的人对当地居民很残忍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 shipping WESyg     
n.船运(发货,运输,乘船)
参考例句:
  • We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
  • There's a shipping charge of £5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。
13 abolition PIpyA     
n.废除,取消
参考例句:
  • They declared for the abolition of slavery.他们声明赞成废除奴隶制度。
  • The abolition of the monarchy was part of their price.废除君主制是他们的其中一部分条件。
14 ginger bzryX     
n.姜,精力,淡赤黄色;adj.淡赤黄色的;vt.使活泼,使有生气
参考例句:
  • There is no ginger in the young man.这个年轻人没有精神。
  • Ginger shall be hot in the mouth.生姜吃到嘴里总是辣的。
15 alcoholic rx7zC     
adj.(含)酒精的,由酒精引起的;n.酗酒者
参考例句:
  • The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
  • Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。
16 tightly ZgbzD7     
adv.紧紧地,坚固地,牢固地
参考例句:
  • My child holds onto my hand tightly while we cross the street.横穿马路时,孩子紧拉着我的手不放。
  • The crowd pressed together so tightly that we could hardly breathe.人群挤在一起,我们几乎喘不过气来。

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