Chapter Seven: The Spread of Slavery
第七章：奴隶制的传播

The English英国人/ˈɪŋglɪʃ/ wanted New Amsterdam新阿姆斯特丹（现纽约）/nuː ˈæmstərdæm/ (now New York) because the rich fur trade毛皮贸易/fɜː treɪd/ could make money金钱，收益/ˈmʌni/ for England. So far, the other English settlements定居点，殖民地/ˈsetlmənts/ in America hadn't produced much wealth财富/welθ/! King James had hoped that the Jamestown colonists殖民者/ˈkɒlənaɪsts/ would find gold黄金/gəʊld/, but the rich soil土壤/sɔɪl/ of Virginia held no jewels or precious metals.

But soon Virginia's ground土地/graʊnd/ brought England another kind of gold—"green gold绿色黄金（指烟草）/griːn gəʊld/." And like the gold of South America, this "green gold" would bring riches财富/ˈrɪtʃɪz/ to some and misery痛苦，苦难/ˈmɪzəri/ to others.

The story故事/ˈstɔːri/ of Virginia's green gold began when a young Englishman named John Rolfe约翰·罗尔夫（人名）/dʒɒn rɒlf/ arrived at the Jamestown colony殖民地/ˈkɒləni/. Jamestown had been founded建立，创立/ˈfaʊndɪd/ two years before, but the colonists were starving挨饿/ˈstɑːvɪŋ/. They were ragged, poor, and wretched悲惨的/ˈretʃɪd/, struggling through long days of farming农业，耕作/ˈfɑːmɪŋ/ and huddling, still hungry, over their small fires at night.

John Rolfe was sure that the colony would fail失败/feɪl/ and that he would have to return to England. In the meantime, he had little food食物/fuːd/—and nothing fun to do after a hard day of labor劳动/ˈleɪbə/ in the hot Virginia sun. But John Rolfe did have a few tobacco seeds烟草种子/təˈbækəʊ siːdz/. And like many Englishmen, he loved to smoke吸烟/sməʊk/.

Rolfe had already noticed注意到/ˈnəʊtɪst/ that the native Americans美洲原住民/ˈneɪtɪv əˈmerɪkənz/ who lived near the colony grew a kind of tobacco of their own. They planted种植/ˈplɑːntɪd/ it, weeded除草/ˈwiːdɪd/ it carefully, picked it by hand, hung the leaves叶子/liːvz/ up to dry over the smoke of a wood fire, and then rolled the leaves up and smoked them. Other colonists had tried this native Virginia tobacco, but they didn't like the way it tasted尝起来/ˈteɪstɪd/. "Poore and weake, and of a byting taste," one colonist complained.

But John Rolfe's seeds种子/siːdz/ were Spanish tobacco西班牙烟草/ˈspænɪʃ təˈbækəʊ/—a rich kind of leaf that most Englishmen preferred更喜欢/prɪˈfɜːd/. Rolfe found a fertile肥沃的/ˈfɜːtaɪl/ patch of land and planted his seeds. He copied the native American methods方法/ˈmeθədz/ of raising the plants, picking the leaves, and hanging them up to dry. When he rolled up his leaves and smoked them, he was delighted高兴的/dɪˈlaɪtɪd/. He thought that the Virginia-grown Spanish leaves tasted wonderful!

John Rolfe shared分享/ʃeəd/ his tobacco with a few other colonists. They agreed: the leaf tasted wonderful. Together, the colonists grew a few more plants and sent some of the tobacco to London伦敦/ˈlʌndən/. London was full of tobacco-users吸烟者/təˈbækəʊ ˈjuːzəz/! All the most fashionable时尚的/ˈfæʃnəbl/ young men of England smoked. They blew so much smoke out of their mouths and noses that they were called "reeking gallants冒烟的绅士/ˈriːkɪŋ ˈgæləns/."

Often, they had servants仆人/ˈsɜːvənts/ who did nothing but follow them around to taverns酒馆/ˈtævənz/, balls, and theatres, carrying their tobacco equipment设备/ɪˈkwɪpmənt/. A German visitor to England marveled, "Everywhere...the English are constantly smoking....They draw the smoke into their mouths [and] puff out again through their nostrils, like funnels, along with...plenty of phlegm from the head." But until now, the English had been forced to buy tobacco from the Spanish—and Spain and England were continually at war战争/wɔː/.

If the English could buy Virginia tobacco instead, they wouldn't have to pay money to their enemies敌人/ˈenəmiz/! London smokers purchased购买/ˈpɜːtʃəst/ all the tobacco that the Jamestown colonists sent—and exclaimed over the new leaf. "No country under the Sunne may, or doth affoord more pleasant, sweet, and strong Tobacco," one Englishman marveled. Merchants商人/ˈmɜːtʃənts/ begged for more.

The Jamestown colonists realized that although they had no gold, they might have something better. Only six years after Rolfe first planted his seeds, the Jamestown colonists were planting tobacco everywhere—even in the streets街道/striːts/ of their town! By the following year, England was buying more tobacco from Virginia than from Spain. Not everyone was pleased with English smoking habits. King James wrote an essay文章/ˈeseɪ/ called Counterblaste to Tobacco《反对烟草》/ˈkaʊntəblæst tuː təˈbækəʊ/, in which he announced, "[Smoking is] a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

Englishmen kept right on smoking. By 1630, Virginia was sending over a half million pounds磅（重量单位）/paʊndz/ of tobacco to England every year! But raising tobacco took an enormous巨大的/ɪˈnɔːməs/ amount of work. The seeds had to be hand-planted, hand-weeded, and hand-pruned. Caterpillars毛虫/ˈkætəpɪləz/ and worms had to be picked off one at a time.

When the tobacco plants were ready, the leaves had to be taken off one at a time and hung on pegs to dry for six weeks. Then the stems had to be taken off and the leaves packed, one at a time, into barrels桶/ˈbærəlz/. One farm worker农场工人/fɑːm ˈwɜːkə/ could only take care of two or three acres英亩（面积单位）/ˈeɪkəz/ of tobacco.

At first, tobacco farmers hired indentured servants契约仆人/ɪnˈdentʃəd ˈsɜːvənts/—poor Englishmen and women who agreed to work for a colonist who paid for their journey旅程/ˈdʒɜːni/ to the New World and gave them food and a place to live. After six or seven years, the colonist would give the servant a new suit of clothes and enough money to get started. The servant was now a member成员/ˈmembə/ of the colony. Many Americans who began as indentured servants later became wealthy, important citizens公民/ˈsɪtɪzənz/.

But as the tobacco fields grew larger, farmers needed even more help. In 1619, a Dutch trading ship threw down its anchor锚/ˈæŋkə/ in the Chesapeake Bay切萨皮克湾/ˈtʃesəpiːk beɪ/ and offered to sell African slaves奴隶/sleɪvz/ to the Jamestown colonists. The colonists bought twenty slaves and put them to work in the tobacco fields.

Although these Africans were the first North American slaves, slavery奴隶制/ˈsleɪvəri/ itself was nothing new. For at least a hundred years, European traders贸易商/ˈtreɪdəz/ had brought slaves to the plantations种植园/plænˈteɪʃənz/ of Central and South America. They would load their ships with metal knives, pots and pans, cloth, and rum朗姆酒/rʌm/, and would sail down to the west coast of Africa.

There, they would dock their ships and meet with African war leaders战争领袖/wɔː ˈliːdəz/ who had taken members of other African tribes部落/traɪbz/ as prisoners of war战俘/ˈprɪzənəz ɒv wɔː/. The war leaders would trade these prisoners for the European goods. Then the European ships would sail across the Atlantic to the West Indies西印度群岛/west ˈɪndiz/, the islands of Central America, trade the slaves for sugar, molasses糖蜜/məˈlæsɪz/, and cotton, and sail back to Europe. This became known as the "Triangular Trade三角贸易/traɪˈæŋgjʊlə treɪd/" because the ships followed a triangular pattern.

But now slaves came, not just to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies殖民地/ˈkɒləniz/ in Central and South America, but to North America as well. At first, Virginia bought only a few hundred slaves per year. But the tobacco fields grew larger and larger. Other colonies, south of Virginia, began to plant not only tobacco but also rice稻米/raɪs/ and cotton棉花/ˈkɒtn/. These fields also needed thousands of laborers劳动者/ˈleɪbərəz/ to tend them, water them, and harvest收获/ˈhɑːvɪst/ them.

More and more slaves came to North America—thousands, and then tens of thousands per year. A hundred years after the first slaves came to Jamestown, almost half of the colonists in Virginia were slaves. The Virginia tobacco plantations种植园/plænˈteɪʃənz/ prospered, but only because of slavery. And these unwilling colonists不情愿的殖民者/ʌnˈwɪlɪŋ ˈkɒlənaɪsts/ could never earn their freedom自由/ˈfriːdəm/—or return home.

The first slaves brought to Jamestown came from the west coast of Africa on a Dutch ship. But the Dutch weren't the first European nation to trade in West African slaves. The Portuguese, who lived in a small seagoing海上的/ˈsiːgəʊɪŋ/ nation on the coast of the Spanish peninsula半岛/pəˈnɪnsjʊlə/, had made a fortune财富/ˈfɔːtʃuːn/ selling African slaves to other European countries. Portuguese slave traders thought of the huge African continent大陆/ˈkɒntɪnənt/ as an inexhaustible用不完的/ˌɪnɪgˈzɔːstəbl/ source of slaves—and wealth.

But one woman made it her life's work to fight against the Portuguese invaders入侵者/ɪnˈveɪdəz/. The princess公主/prɪnˈses/ Nzinga was born into the royal family王室/ˈrɔɪəl ˈfæməli/ of Ndomba, a kingdom王国/ˈkɪŋdəm/ on the western coast of Africa. As long as she could remember, Portuguese traders had been landing on the shores of her homeland祖国/ˈhəʊmlænd/, offering cloth, jewelry珠宝/ˈdʒuːəlri/, and rum in exchange for prisoners囚犯/ˈprɪzənəz/.

Nzinga didn't know what happened to these prisoners—but she knew that once they boarded the slave ships奴隶船/sleɪv ʃɪps/, they were never seen again. Nzinga's father, the ruler统治者/ˈruːlə/ of Ndomba, was wary谨慎的/ˈweəri/ of the Portuguese ships. They brought fascinating European goods, and they treated him with respect尊重/rɪˈspekt/, as a king should be treated. But he had also heard rumors传言/ˈruːməz/ that they might attack him and capture some of his land.

The rumors were true. For many years, the Portuguese had been careful to make friends with the kings of African kingdoms near the coast: Ndomba, Kongo (to the north), and Matamba (a little to the northeast). The Portuguese king wrote letters to the king of Kongo, calling him "most powerful and excellent优秀的/ˈeksələnt/ king," and sent experts专家/ˈekspɜːts/ in farming to West Africa to serve the African people. In exchange for this friendliness, the Portuguese expected to receive as many prisoners of war as these kingdoms could provide.

But as Nzinga grew to be a woman, the slave trade itself began to change. The colonies in North and South America demanded要求/dɪˈmɑːndɪd/ more slaves than the African kingdoms could willingly provide. And other European nations—the English, Dutch, and French—were beginning to send slave ships to West Africa. The Portuguese wanted to keep part of Africa for their very own—an African kingdom of slaves which no English or Dutch trader could use.

So the Portuguese king decided to attack and conquer征服/ˈkɒŋkə/ Ndomba. He sent an army to invade入侵/ɪnˈveɪd/ Nzinga's homeland. After Ndomba was captured, the Portuguese planned to settle a hundred families there and rename it the Kingdom of Sebastiao. But the conquest of Ndomba didn't go as planned. Nzinga's father led his people against the Portuguese invaders in battle战斗/ˈbætl/ after battle. By the time Nzinga had grown to be a woman, Ndomba and Portugal had been fighting for almost thirty years!

Nzinga joined in the fighting. She led a trained band of women warriors女战士/ˈwɪmɪn ˈwɔːriəz/ against the Portuguese again and again. She gained a reputation名声/ˌrepjʊˈteɪʃn/ for bravery勇敢/ˈbreɪvəri/—and cruelty残忍/ˈkruːəlti/. When Nzinga was thirty-four, her brother Mbandi became king in her father's place. Nzinga loved her two sisters, who fought beside her in her warrior band. But she thought her brother was a weak, cowardly懦弱的/ˈkaʊədli/ whiner, more interested in food than in leadership.

Mbandi was afraid of his sister! He knew she was stronger than he was—and he suspected that she would be a better ruler. So when he took over the throne王位/θrəʊn/, he drove her out of the kingdom. But after a few years of war, Mbandi realized that he would never be able to defeat the Portuguese. He decided that he would try to make a treaty条约/ˈtriːti/ with them instead. The Portuguese, tired of the unending battles, were willing to meet for peace talks和平谈判/piːs tɔːks/—but Mbandi was too frightened to travel to their headquarters.

Instead, he sent a message to his sister Nzinga. "Go and meet with the Portuguese for me," he said. "Convince them to leave us in peace, and I will allow you to return to your homeland." Nzinga agreed to go. She knew that the people of Ndomba had not been able to outfight在战斗中击败/ˌaʊtˈfaɪt/ the Portuguese. Perhaps she could outwit智胜/ˌaʊtˈwɪt/ them instead! So she dressed in her royal robes, collected a retinue随从/ˈretɪnjuː/ of servants, and journeyed to the town where the Portuguese leaders had set up their headquarters.

The Portuguese gave her a comfortable and luxurious奢华的/lʌgˈʒʊəriəs/ house to stay in and sent missionaries传教士/ˈmɪʃənəriz/ to talk to her. Nzinga listened carefully. When she realized that the Portuguese would treat her with more respect if she were a Christian, she allowed herself to be baptized受洗/bæpˈtaɪzd/ and to be given a Christian name, Anna de Sousa. She also ordered her sisters, Kifunji and Mukumbu, to be baptized. The Portuguese gave them the names Lady Grace and Lady Barbara.

And then the day to settle the terms of the treaty arrived. When Nzinga walked into the hall where she would meet with the Portuguese leader, she looked around and saw only one chair! The Portuguese leader sat on a jeweled, carved chair of state. But he had tossed a cushion垫子/ˈkʊʃən/ on the floor for Nzinga. Nzinga turned to the servant behind her and raised her eyebrows眉毛/ˈaɪbraʊz/. At once, the woman came forward and fell down on her hands and knees. Nzinga tossed her robe out behind her and seated herself royally on her human throne. Now she could look the Portuguese in the eye!

When the treaty talks were over, the Portuguese had agreed to treat Ndomba as an independent独立的/ˌɪndɪˈpendənt/ African kingdom, as long as all of the Portuguese captives俘虏/ˈkæptɪvz/ taken in the long war were sent home. Nzinga rose and started from the room. Her servant remained on her hands and knees. The governor总督/ˈgʌvənə/ stood as well. "Your...throne!" he pointed out. Nzinga threw him a royal glance. "Great queens," she said, "do not use the same throne twice." She stalked out—and returned home to Ndomba.

But the peace treaty Nzinga had negotiated谈判/nɪˈgəʊʃieɪtɪd/ didn't last. The Portuguese, once again running low on slaves, invaded Ndomba again, kidnapping its people and packing them on board the slave ships. Nzinga begged her brother to fight back, but he refused. Perhaps he was afraid to lead warriors armed with spears长矛/spɪəz/ against the guns枪支/gʌnz/ of the Portuguese. Nzinga was furious with her brother's cowardice懦弱/ˈkaʊədɪs/. Then, unexpectedly, Mbandi died.

Many people whispered that Nzinga had poisoned毒死/ˈpɔɪzənd/ him, afraid that he would lose the kingdom to Portugal forever. No one knows for sure. But we do know that Nzinga declared herself queen and began a lifelong war against the Portuguese. The Portuguese captured her capital city首都/ˈkæpɪtl ˈsɪti/ and drove her from her palace. Nzinga simply invaded the nearby kingdom of Matamba and took its throne instead. Whenever the Portuguese tried to bring parties of slaves from other West African nations to the coast, Nzinga would send her soldiers to attack them.

After years and years of struggling against Nzinga's fighters, the Portuguese finally gave up. They told Nzinga that she could return to her throne in Ndomba and rule it in peace—as long as she allowed them to pass through her kingdom with slaves, on the way to the coast. Nzinga, now in her seventies, agreed. In great ceremony仪式/ˈserəməni/, she returned to the palace she had left years before. When she died, at the age of eighty-one, she was buried埋葬/ˈberid/ with a bow and arrow in her hands, ready for battle.

But after Nzinga's death, the Portuguese took over Kongo, Matamba, and Ndomba. Because Nzinga's people had called her ngola恩戈拉（战争首领）/ŋˈgəʊlə/, or "war chief," the Portuguese thought that ngola was the proper name of her country. So they called their new colony Angola. And Angola remained under Portuguese rule until November 11th, 1975—three hundred years later.