2014年英语四级听力的练习：VOA慢速4.16_大学英语听力

2014年英语四级听力的练习：VOA慢速4.16

　　Most Americans first of all were racists and, secondly, saw these people as utter fanatics who were intent on destroying the union.

　　Julie Roy Jeffrey is a professor of history at Goucher College in Maryland. She says newspapers reported on the Amistad case, and people began talking about slavery and the slave trade. Slowly, some Americans feelings toward the abolitionist movement and enslaved Africans changed.

　　For example, there was a play put on in New York City called the Black Schooner that was based on the Amistad incident, and there were many, many people who went to see it. It became a popular event. And wax figures of the captives were exhibited in various places in the United States, and artists drew pictures of them.

　　The abolitionists wanted to make more Americans sympathetic to the Amistad Africans. They found lawyers to represent them, paid tutors to teach them, and organized outdoor exercises to keep them healthy and visible.

　　Howard Jones taught history at the University of Virginia. He says one of the most popular members of the Amistad Africans was an eight-year-old boy who had learned English. The boy told the public about his life in Africa and about the conditions on the slave ship that brought him across the Atlantic Ocean.

　　The Amistad case also was increasingly becoming a political issue. People wanted to know what President Martin Van Buren was going to do about the case.