The African who saved America from pestilence and other slaves who made history

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Although slavery has long been abolished in most countries and now we pity the slaves of the past, and do not despise them, still echoes of the idea of where and whose place in life and history are still alive. It is difficult for many people to accept that the role of slaves was very essential for the development (including scientific and humanistic!) Of the cultures that they happened to serve, and it is difficult to imagine that slaves could somehow influence history. Nevertheless, there are many examples. More than we could fit into this article.

African Anisim

In the eighteenth century, as is known, they began to actively vaccinate against smallpox wherever representatives of European nations lived. In the American states, this was initiated, for example, by a priest named Cotton Mater. In addition, he is known as the initiator of the trial against the Salem witches and a man who saw witches and heretics everywhere. But he was still sensible about smallpox and vaccinations.

However, Mater did not come up with the idea to vaccinate, and he did not learn about the way to prevent the disease through correspondence with British colleagues - they themselves did not know this then. His black slave Anisim told him how to get vaccinated against a terrible disease that disfigured, blinded, and killed people by the thousands.

Since Anisim was considered an insignificant figure (he just saved white Americans from the epidemic and taught them to vaccinate), little is known about him. In 1706, grateful parishioners presented it to Mater for some occasion, accompanied by the words that the guy is smart. Mater asked if Anisim (this is not the real name of the slave, as the slave owners called him) had smallpox, and Anisim - since he did not know words like "vaccination" - answered "yes and no." And then he said that in his native tribe, the Koromanti only infect his hand.

Four years earlier, Boston had been mowed down by a third by another epidemic, so information about the vaccine and how it is done was very valuable. Mather developed great activity to introduce the smallpox vaccination into general practice, and as a result he was exalted - although the monk did not hide the source of his knowledge. But it's not a slave to celebrate, is it?

Roman Patrick

But another slave is honored virtually everywhere the Irish are. We are talking about Saint Patrick, an ethnic Roman who was kidnapped from Britain into slavery. He spent his youth as a shepherd in foreign lands for him, then he was baptized and began to preach. It is believed that it was he who baptized Ireland - although, of course, there were some Christians on the island before him. Irish Christian culture has long been at the forefront of Europe, and when a plague swept across Europe, devastating monasteries, Irish missionaries and monks rushed en masse to the continent to keep Christianity there. In addition to the fact that they coped with their mission, it is worth saying that they raised the Christian artistic and spiritual culture of the mainland to a new level.

Mexican Malinal

Some Mexicans revere her, others despise her, but one thing is clear: Malinal, she is dona Marina, turned out to be one of the key figures in the transition of Mexico to Spanish rule. A girl from a noble family of a small tribe, she was enslaved at a young age. Later it was resold more than once. Thanks to her beauty and intelligence, she managed to remain in the category of concubines, and not, for example, earn money for her master by prostitution or work hard in the fields, but she found her fate savory and disliked her compatriots.

Her ordeal ended when she was presented - among all sorts of objects - to Cortez, the conqueror of Mexico. He became her last master - and she again had to go through his bed. From the Spaniards, Malinal was baptized and received a promise that she would become a free woman and the wife of a respected person if she helped them in negotiations and provided all the necessary information. The fact is that by that time Malinal had learned all the necessary manners and common languages, and also, being observant, she understood the political situation in Mexico well, knew who was in what relationship, what was strong and what was weak.

After many years of service, the Spaniards, for whom the help of dona Marina (as she was baptized) was invaluable, gave her a husband from their ranks. True, before that she gave birth to a bastard from Cortez, and he, like all his bastards, sent him to Spain. When modern Mexicans curse Malinal for betraying their compatriots, it is worth recalling that the compatriots themselves transferred it into the ownership of the Spaniards, like a thing, so that it would serve them. She served.

Epictetus and Diogenes of Sinop

At least two slaves entered the history of philosophy: the Stoic Epictetus and the Cynic Diogenes of Sinope. Epictetus was already born into slavery in Phrygia. Since his mother was a slave, the question of who his father was was not in principle. Epictetus himself was sold to Rome, to Nero's secretary. He differed from other slaves - mainly those forced to their position at a conscious age - in that, as if he was not at all burdened with him, and willingly carried out his orders, remaining invariably joyful.

In Rome, Epictetus devoted all his free time to the study of philosophy and, apparently, so impressed the master - also a former slave - that he received will. Although it may have been redeemed, this has not remained in history. After that, he was expelled from Rome along with a crowd of other philosophers (such was the political period), but he returned there again - under another emperor, and moreover immediately glorified. Real crowds gathered to listen to Epictetus, but he did not make money on his popularity, believing that he had enough straw bedding, a wooden bench and an earthen lamp for life. On his grave, he bequeathed to put a tombstone with the inscription "Servant Epictetus". And so they did.

Diogenes of Sinop is the same man who mocked Plato and, when Plato defined man as a two-legged creature without feathers, plucked a chicken and presented him as Plato's man. There is a legend about Diogenes of Sinop that he supposedly lived in a barrel (barrels in his time could not be made). In fact, it was pithos, a huge earthen vessel. By the way, Plato, with whom Diogenes constantly discussed, also was in slavery - but before meeting Diogenes. Diogenes found himself in slavery in his old age when he was captured by pirates.

The owner instructed Diogenes to teach his children, and, oddly enough, the philosopher coped with this task perfectly, putting aside all his love of shocking. When the disciples found him and tried to ransom him, he refused: it is not shameful for a real Kinik to be a slave either. And before he was sold on the market square and the herald was thinking how to announce such an old man (however, it was clear that he was only suitable for, as they would later say, governors), Diogenes suggested asking the crowd if anyone would like to buy himself an owner in his face. By the way, Diogenes was geographically a native of Turkey. Like Epictetus!

Slaves seem to be particularly prominent in art. The villainous poet, the fugitive writer, the pearl actress. The fates of three famous slaves of the East, West and the New World.