Question

Nikole hannah-jones comments that the white lion, the first slave ship to arrive in the british north american colonies, arrived at a port ironically named point comfort. what is ironic about that name?

Answer 1

The term 'Point Comfort' is ironic because it contrasts sharply with the brutal and harsh reality endured by the first Africans who arrived there on the slave ship named White Lion, marking the beginning of American slavery.

Step-by-step explanation:

The irony in the name Point Comfort lies in the fact that the first slave ship to arrive there, the White Lion, brought captive Africans whose lives were anything but comfortable. The Africans trafficked by the company endured a nightmare of misery, privation, and dislocation. Even before the creation of the Royal African Company, English merchants had engaged in the slave trade, and after 1689, this involvement greatly increased. The captured Africans were usually transported from the West Indies, often Barbados, to the mainland American colonies on company ships. They had their lives upturned, families torn apart, and were subjected to brutal treatment both on the sea voyage and in the new land where they were forced into slavery. In such horrendous circumstances, the name 'Point Comfort' is markedly ironic and in stark contrast to the atrocious reality.

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