In this new and original interpretation of the barbaric world of slavery and of its historic end in April 1807; the parallel lives of three individuals caught up in the enterprise of human enslavement—a trader; an owner; and a slave—are examined. John Newton (1725–1807); best known as the author of Amazing Grace; was a slave captain who marshaled his human cargoes with a brutality that he looked back on with shame and contrition. Thomas Thistlewood (1721–86) lived his life in a remote corner of western Jamaica and his unique diary provides some of the most revealing images of a slave owner’s life in the most valuable of all British slave colonies. Olaudah Equiano (1745–97) was practically unknown 30 years ago; but is now an iconic figure in black history and his experience as a slave speaks out for lives of millions who went unrecorded. All three men were contemporaries; they even came close to each other at different points of the Atlantic compass. But what held them together; in its destructive gravitational pull; was the Atlantic slave system.
#8683266 in Books 2002-09-15 2002-07-18Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.50 x .87 x 5.43l; 1.05 #File Name: 0700716483384 pages
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The Decisive Moral-Spiritual Critique of Contemporary Human RightsBy Tengku Ahmad HazriChandra Muzaffar's `Rights; Religion and Reform' (2002) offers a scathing critique of contemporary human rights; drawn uniquely; not from dissident strands within Western intellectual tradition but from the religious and spiritual traditions of the world. His emphasis on the universal spiritual and moral values that cut across religious; cultural and national boundaries will appeal to the modern believer who wishes to engage in contemporary human rights discourse; not despite his religious belief; but precisely because of it; for it is the moral and spiritual core of religion that Chandra argues should form the foundation of human rights. The imbalance of contemporary human rights can only be rectified by a holistic vision; traditionally integral to religious thought; which melds together rights; responsibilities; roles and relationships (the "four Rs"). But Chandra's critique of contemporary human rights goes beyond censure of the disproportionate primacy attached to rights: what he finds especially problematic is the meaning of "human" in modern human rights; which takes the vision of man as the Promethean rebel against Heaven courtesy of Enlightenment dethronement of the divine and the transcendent. It is when man is again anchored to the transcendent that we may surpass the human rights paradigm towards the loftier aspiration for human dignity.
