VOA标准英语2008年-Exhibit Tells Forgotten Story of African Americ

Most histories of African Americans at sea focus on slave ships, which transported their human cargo¹ from Africa to the United States or other parts of the world. But a new exhibit in the port city of Philadelphia expands that story to reveal the substantial contributions African Americans made to the maritime² world. Reporter Stasia DeMarco attended the exhibit at the Independence Seaport³ Museum.

Black Hands, Blue Seas explores the untold⁴ stories of the African American maritime experience. Curator Craig Bruns says there is much more to tell than just the voyage from Africa to slavery. "We have longshoremen. We have the ordinary sailor. We have naval⁵ personnel. We have whalers." He says many of the different experiences and contributions are surprising to visitors.

The black maritime tradition actually begins in Africa, and the exhibit features several artifacts reflecting that. Bruns points to a canoe that was manned by four oarsmen. "It just shows that Africa had its own maritime traditions and those traditions were transferred to America by the slaves, and many of those traditions were then transferred to American sailing traditions."

Much information in exhibit not widely known

A group of middle school students from Brooklyn, New York, spent part of their class trip to Philadelphia touring the exhibit. Their teacher, Dane Martinez, says the school wanted the students to have a deeper understanding of their heritage and culture. "We knew that it gave a fresh perspective on the civil rights struggle for African Americans," he explains.

Philadelphia was the hub of antislavery activity in the Americas in the 1700s and 1800s, and the students toured parts of the Underground Railroad, a network of secret routes and safe houses for fugitive⁶ slaves escaping to freedom in the northern states. "We hear this is affectionately known sometimes as the Underwater Railroad," Martinez adds, referring to the Delaware River, which runs past the Independence Seaport Museum and was used by runaway⁷ slaves heading north.

The exhibit is an educational experience for more than just tour groups and school kids. Greta Chapin-McGill attended the exhibit with a few friends. The black author says she was impressed by the amount of African history she wasn't aware of and would never have known if she hadn't seen Black Hands, Blue Seas.

"I kind of always have felt that maritime and sailing and all of that was not a black experience," she admits. She was surprised to learn that it was, and remains⁸, a big part of African American history. The exhibit depicts⁹ that history through artwork, tools, music, photographs and historic documents.

Negroland in Central Africa

Among those historic documents are maps of Africa. Chapin-McGill says she was especially struck by one map from 1747, during the slave-trading period, which depicts all the places slaves were taken from. "There was a huge part of the middle of the continent that had been named Negroland, and I have never heard that, never seen that term before and that was just very striking to me."

There never was a country called Negroland. But it was common for cartographers of the 1600s and 1700s to gain their knowledge of the globe by talking to explorers, traders and travelers, then use their imaginations to fill in the unknown places on their map.And after having many conversations, cartographer Emanuel Bowen must have felt that the area where people were called Negros would be called Negroland.

His map and the rest of the Black Hands Blue Seas exhibit began in Mystic Harbor, on the Connecticut coast, and will be in Philadelphia for a year before traveling on to its next destination… continuing to cast light on an ignored chapter of American history.

 

 

1 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

2 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

3 seaport   

n.海港，港口，港市

参考例句：

• Ostend is the most important seaport in Belgium.奥斯坦德是比利时最重要的海港。
• A seaport where ships can take on supplies of coal.轮船能够补充煤炭的海港。

4 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

5 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

6 fugitive   

adj.逃亡的，易逝的；n.逃犯，逃亡者

参考例句：

• The police were able to deduce where the fugitive was hiding.警方成功地推断出那逃亡者躲藏的地方。
• The fugitive is believed to be headed for the border.逃犯被认为在向国境线逃窜。

7 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。