VOA常速英语:Echoes of 1619

The ship came up the Chesapeake Bay,and it landed here at Point Comfort in the latter part of August of 1619
在1619年8月末，船驶上切萨皮克湾，停靠在康福特港
and on this ship were 20 and odd Africans.
船上有20多个非洲人。
The first Africans who were brought here were destined for a life of servitude.
第一批被带到这里的非洲人注定要过上受奴役生活。
They had to work the plantations from sunup to sunset, the tobacco fields, the corn fields.
他们不得不从日出到日落一直劳作，种植烟草田、玉米田。
They had to work these fields with no hope of ever being free.
他们必须在这些田地上干活，不可能有任何自由。
It makes me feel goosebumps and a sad nostalgia.I just can imagine the sailing into the bay of these chained individuals in a strange land,
这让我觉得很恶心，也很悲伤。我能想象他们戴着镣铐被运往这个海湾，然后登上了一片陌生的土地，
not knowing anything about where they were.Being taken off the vessel and told you’re going to work here, you’re going to live here.
不知道他们在哪里。从船上下来后就告诉你要在这里工作，要定居在这里。
These were free people who had been kidnapped as free people and sold into slavery.
他们都是自由人，被绑架的自由人，然后被卖为奴隶。
Angela, interestingly, is the only African
有趣的是，“安吉拉”是唯一一个
whose name was actually written in the records in 1,620, that survived.Now, there may have been other names mentioned, but those records did not survive.
在1620年记录在案并保存下来的非洲人名字。当时可能还记录了其他名字，但都遗失了。
With Angela, we can tell the much broader story of slavery
与安吉拉一起，我们可以讲述更广泛的奴隶制的故事
and the beginnings of slavery in our country,and racism which really went hand in hand with slavery.
我们国家奴隶制以及真正与奴隶制联系在一起的种族主义的起源。
And at the same time, give Angela, through our imagination,
同时通过我们的想象，
some sense of identity, some sense of dignity.
还可以给安吉拉一些认同感和尊严感。
They did most of the work,and a number of them obviously died in the process,
他们承担了大部分的劳作，很多人都死于这个过程，
but we owe a debt to those Africans,
我们显然对他们有所亏欠，
because they were the foundation of the economic development
因为他们是经济发展的基础，
of what became the United States of America.
也造就了今天的美利坚合众国。
So, as early as 1650,Newport had a burial place where anyone,
所以，早在1650年纽波特就有一个专门的墓地，
regardless of race or class or ethnicity, could be buried.By 1705, the northwest section of this burying ground,
不分种族、阶级或族裔，均可以在此下葬。到了1705年，在这个墓地的西北部分，
we are starting to see enslaved Africans buried there.
我们开始看到被奴役的非洲人被埋在那里。
And over the next 100 years,
在接下来的100年里，
hundreds and hundreds of markers and hundreds and hundreds of burials
成千上万的墓碑和葬礼
are being made at that burying ground.We believe there were at least 3,000 burials during the life cycle of that burying ground.
都在这个墓地里进行。我们相信，在这片墓地从开始到废弃，至少有3000座墓葬。
My own family is buried here,but more importantly, its a sense of African identity.
我的家人就埋在这里，但更重要的是，这是一种非洲认同感。
I mean, this is a place where men and women of African descent actually lived in this community
非洲人的后裔这样一个团体，实际上生活在这里，
and were buried here.
并最终被埋葬在这里。
And it gives me a direct connectivity to the history of my own community.
这个地方让我直接将自己和我们群体的历史连接在了一起。
So, one of the great ironies of Rhode Island is the fact that
所以，罗得岛州最大的讽刺之一就是
we are founded under religious freedom,but we soon enter and dominate the enslavement of human beings
我们国家建立在宗教自由的基础上，但我们很快就开始控制并奴役人类，
in the African slave trade.
在非洲奴隶贸易中获益。
The church, particularly in Rhode Island, profited directly from the slave trade.
教会，特别是罗德岛的教会，直接从奴隶贸易中获利。
But in a more direct way, we owned slaves.We had clergy who owned slaves.
但更直接地说，奴隶是我们的附属品。我们有神职人员拥有自己的奴隶。
We had slaves who were owned by the missionary organizations
我们有传教士组织拥有他们自己的奴隶
that were creating by the Anglican churches here in the United States.
而这些组织都是英国圣公会教堂在美国创建的。
Between 1705 and 1805,there are at least 900 documented slave ships
从1705年到1805年间，至少有900艘记录在案的奴隶船
that begin in Rhode Island and eventually end from West Africa,
从罗德岛起航，最后在西非靠岸，
through the West Indies, and back to Rhode Island.
途径西印度群岛，回到罗德岛。
This is where it is, right?
就在这里，对吧？
This is the DeWolf family cemetery.
这是德沃尔夫家族墓地。
This is the funeral mound of James DeWolf.It is hard to muster much sympathy for the lack of dignity in this,
这是詹姆斯·德沃尔夫的墓地。虽然他的墓地看起来很没有尊严，但我们很难对他表示同情，
for someone who engaged in slave trading and on that kind of an epic scale.
因为他从事奴隶交易，而且规模非常庞大。
James DeWolf and his extended family
詹姆斯·德沃尔夫和他的大家庭
brought more than 12,000 enslaved Africans across the Middle Passage,and are probably responsible for about half a million people
把12000多名被奴役的非洲人通过中段航线带到了美国，并且对大约50万人负有直接责任，
who are alive today in the Americas,
他们现在还活着，生活在美国，
descended from those who crossed the Middle Passage on their ships.
都是那些通过中段航道被带到美国的奴隶的后代。
They would take rum, primarily, as well as other commoditiesto the coast of West Africa to trade for men, women and children,
他们主要把朗姆酒和其他商品运送到西非海岸去交换男人，女人和孩子，
who were then brought back to be sold at auction
他们会被带回美洲，然后被拍卖，
either in the Caribbean-and primarily that was in Cuba
要么是在加勒比海，主要是在古巴进行拍卖，
or in the American South, in ports like Charleston, South Carolina.
或者在美国南部，像查尔斯顿，南卡罗来纳州的港口。
All of this was tremendously important in building the economy of the North
所有贸易和奴隶对北美的经济建设都非常重要
and what became the United States.In the colonial era, the slave trade,
最终造就了美国。在殖民时代，奴隶贸易，
and the provisioning trade to slave plantations of the West Indies,
以及西印度群岛奴隶种植园的供应贸易，
were a key part of what allowed the British colonies to prosper
是保持英国殖民地繁荣的关键部分
and eventually to rebel against Great Britain and become an independent nation.
这些殖民地最终反抗英国，成为一个独立的国家。
Its incumbent upon me, as someone with this kind of a family history,
作为一个有奴隶贸易家族史的人，我义不容辞，
and knowing about this history, to speak out about what our family did,
了解这段历史，说出我们家族的所作所为，
and to help other people draw the connections to the ways
帮助其他人找到这种联系，
in which their families are connected to slavery.
将他们的家庭和奴隶制联系起来。
If we bury the dark parts of a family history,
如果我们掩盖家族历史的黑暗部分，
if we bury the dark parts of a national history,we will start to assume things like that didnt happen,
如果我们掩盖一个国家历史的黑暗部分，我们会开始以为这样的事情没有发生，
and that will greatly distort our understanding how we got here today.
这将大大扭曲我们从那时到现在的历史进程。
There were so many captured and put on the slave ships.So many did not survive, but those that did survive, we are the healthy ones, our ancestors.
有那么多人被俘并被关在奴隶船上。很多人没有活下来，但是有一些人活下来了，他们是我们的祖先，他们造就了我们今天健康的生活。
It is a sacred ground for us. And so, there is no way we can pass it or walk through it
对我们来说，这是一片神圣的土地。因此，我们不可能就此遗忘在这片土地上发生的事情，
without thinking of an ancestor. We exist because they worked hard.
而忽略我们的祖先。我们之所以生存是因为他们的辛勤劳作。
They struggled. They did whatever they had to do to survive.
他们挣扎着。他们为了生存不惜一切。