Essay Questions

Was William Tucker really the first Black child born in what would become the United States?

The book asserts that a child named William Tucker, born to Anthony and Isabelle who were indentured into bondage to William and Mary Tucker, was the first child of African descent born in the territory that would one day become America. And, indeed, all of that is true. William was born in 1624 near Jamestown, Virginia. At the time of his birth, the Tucker family lay claim to 22 Africans but technically they were not considered slaves. As indentured servants they were, in fact, granted the same rights privileges as whites who working under the same terms of conditions. But make no mistake about it: William Tucker was born into slavery.

What is the White Lion?

Aside from being the unfortunately chosen name for a really bad 1980’s hair metal band, the White Lion is also the name of the English ship which brought the first Africans to the Americas to be enslaved. The first arrival of its “cargo” was to the Virginia colony in August 1969; that cargo was twenty human beings ripped from their existence on the west coast of Africa. The book presents the White Lion in all its full menacing glory in a full-spread illustration that fully captures and conveys the darkness of its Satanic mission.

What three symbols recur throughout the narrative as visual motifs that indicate the status stolen Africans?

There are three symbols to look for in the book which are often blended into the backgrounds of illustrations and act almost as a secret code signaling the state of existence the African people at any given point. Parallel lines which are grouped together moving in different directions represents life. Crosses standing on their points to look like an X represent death. And parallel lines all waving in the same direction symbolize rebirth. That illustration of the White Lion, for instance is make all the more sinister by the abundant presence of the death X carved both onto the ship itself as well as the background sky. By contrast, the hut in the background of the village is thickly adorned with sets of parallels lines moving at right angles to other sets.