I attended the “The Logbooks: Connecticut’s Slave Ships and Human Memory” lecture discussion at the New Haven Museum on Thursday March 28, 2015 to witness Anne Farrow the author discuss the book. The lecture was presented by the museum and the Amistad Committee, which is a not for profit, tax exempt organization that believes in justice and equality for everyone in our country and the eradication of slavery. “ The Logbooks” discusses how ships that were owned by a New England merchant sailed to the West Coast of Africa on numerous trips to purchase slaves and participate in the slave trade. Upon entrance of the event I noticed the cultural group originating the event was older, Caucasian, Americans in which, a lot of them had an educational background such a teachers and professors. As I was researching events to complete this assignment I came across this event in the student discussion forum and I proceeded to visit the New Haven website for further information.
It was a very interesting dynamic, to interact with a culture whose ancestors did so much damage to my culture. Especially them telling the audience their point of view from that dark time marked in history. The events in the book were told in a story telling format to transmit the values, morals, and the events that transpired during the voyages on those ships. Someone that worked on the ship maintained the logbooks of the travels and provided first hand knowledge of what occurred on a day-to-day basis. In the literary world there is such an eclectic variety of books that provides a vast medium to have a lectured discussion regardless of the culture. Regardless of your race or religion there is a book that one can relate to and there are similar events across all cultures that one may attend to learn or interact with others.
Intercultural communication from this course has helped me to adapt and learn about other people and their culture through communication. I was able to interact with the author, the other guest and ask competent questions because I was well aware of the topic of discussion, which was slavery. I was also able to exhibit some of the skills that I’ve learned throughout the course such as being flexible, non-judgmental, having the ability to communicate respect, personalize knowledge and display empathy. Throughout the lecture I felt confident with the information that the author was given the audience because I understood the information accurately. Farrow showed us pictures, reels, evidence and artifacts that related to the book. It was a very informative lecture I learned things that I didn’t know such as Rhode Island being the largest colonized capture slave point. She showed us the role that language and religion played in the slave trade. The language component consisted of English and broken African dialect in which slaves communicated with each other and their “superiors”. Meanwhile, a social injustice was taking place during the slave trade where individuals of the west coast of Africa was capitalized on because of their location “easy access” for transportation purposes. There was also a lack of religious freedom for slaves that were easy to point out in “The Logbooks”. They weren’t able to practice their religion or worship openly and they also were denied the option of having an education. During transportation through the Atlantic Ocean they kept the children and women separate from the men, which I think help coined the phrase “divide and conquer”.
During the lecture I found it to be puzzling how much passion that current day Caucasians had to help people that their culture destroyed. As I think about it it’s more so relatable to abolishers who helped free slaves during slavery. The book had complicity about it and how it showcased the role that freedom-loving New England played in the slave trade. New