Homegoing padlet by Roger Botelho

Context (Kojo)

rogerbotelho26_1 — 2024-06-07 12:40:09 UTC

Kojo was the child of Ness, and he was able to escape slavery at a young age with Ma aku. She raised and took care of him in Baltimore Maryland where many black people were living to get jobs at the time. Kojo had gotten married and had 7 children with a 8th on the way, and for work he was on a ship caulking and he became very good at his job. However, his wife's boss warns him that they are gonna be passing the slave fugitive act, which means that any runaway slave can get captured. He tells them that they should go up north but Kojo decides to stay, due to the chances of his wife being taken very low. However, when she doesn't come home one day he makes his daughters wife paint a picture of her and he runs all over town looking for her but he never finds her. She was taken by the authorities and was sold back into slavery (even though she was born free) along with there baby.

Historical Context (Kojo)

rogerbotelho26_1 — 2024-06-07 13:02:29 UTC

During the 1850s, when this chapter was placed in a attempt to stop the south from succeeding they really went hard on slave laws, passing the fugitive slave laws. Also, this was when the underground railroad was a big thing and was helping many fugitve slaves escape into freedom and get their papers. Also, later in 1852, when Harriet Beecher stowes book Uncle Tom's cabin, made many people help and reinforce the facts that slavery was indeed not a good thing and it needed to be stopped in America. However, it did reinforce this bad stigma with the african americans and their culture. Another one is that during this time, the tensions between the south and the north were very high. For example in Kansas, the south and north were fighting for who would own the territory and this was called bleeding Kansas. The north, who wanted the south to abolish slavery, while the south wanted to keep it. Once south carolina seceded from the USA in 1860, a year later the rest of the southern states followed, once the New president, Abraham Lincoln was eleceted into office, due to his anti-slavery point of view.

Thematic Ideas (Kojo)

rogerbotelho26_1 — 2024-06-07 17:37:13 UTC

In Kojos chapter, we see the thematic idea of Racism, when Kojo is looking for his wife, he goes into a shop and asked the lady, who was white, if she had seen her. The women acted visibly scared of him and when a cop came up behind him, he threatend to put him back into slavery along with his wife, who at this point, knew she was gone and not coming back. The cop proceeds to call him a racial slur and then walks away. This really shows how the racism was back in the 1850s, even though Kojo was a free citizen in the united states, he was not treated as one. We can still see the racism torwards African Americans to this day. Another theme we see in Kojos chapter is a sort of betrayal. Kojo is starting to feel like him and his family belong, but Kojos wife ends up getting sold back into slavery. This is a betrayal to Kojo from society, once he feels like he is starting to belong he is knocked right back down. Kojo never recovered from this happening to him, and was not the same father to his kids. So this shows how much of a major event this betrayal was in his life.

Slavery Contiuned Impact (Kojo and Esi)

rogerbotelho26_1 — 2024-06-10 12:38:40 UTC

Slavery has continuned to harm the ancestors of Esi ever since she was taken from her home in Ghana. Her ancestor Kojo, while he is not in slavery for the majority of his life, he still faces the back lash of it. For example, his wife getting taken and sold back into slavery after the fugitive slave act. His wife was not born a slave and yet she was still taken from him by the racist south, who assumed she was a run away. Kojo also sees the racism of those who are scared of African Americans just because they are different from them. But, the fact of Esi being sold into slavery, is still affecting Kojo, because he was born a slave. Kojo is constantly on the run and has to watch his back for a slave master that could try and claim him and say he ran away. Esi and her ancestors are still affected by the lasting terms of slavery, even after Kojo. There will still be effects from slavery in the life's of the ancestors to come.