Olaudah Equiano
Introduction
Olaudah Equiano was a West African who had been sold into slaveryand transported across the Atlantic Ocean to a new life ofservitude. In the New World, Equiano converted to Christianity andlearned to read and write. Ultimately, he was able to secure hisfreedom and moved to London where he wrote and published an accountof his life as a slave. Equiano's memoir is a rare piece ofevidence providing us with the views of an enslaved WestAfrican.
Questions to Consider
•Why did Equiano say he would have preferred death to continuedexistence on the slave ship?
• How did Equiano find himself is such a terrible predicament? Didhe seem to hold any grudge against his original captors?
Source
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coastwas the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, andwaiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which wassoon converted into terror, which I am yet at a loss to describenor the then feelings of my mind. When I was carried on board I wasimmediately handled, and tossed up, to see if I were sound by someof the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world ofbad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexionstoo differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the languagethey spoke, which was very different from any I had ever heard,united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed, such were the horrorsof my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worldshad been my own, I would have parted with them all to haveexchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my owncountry. When I looked around the ship too, and saw a large furnaceor copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of everydescription chained together, every one of their countenancesexpressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate;and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionlesson the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little, I found someblack people about me, who, I believed were some of those whobrought me on board, and had been receiving their pay; they talkedto me in order to cheer me, but all in vain. I asked them if wewere not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks, redfaces, and long hair? They told me I was not; and one of the crewbrought me a small portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass;but, being afraid of him, I would not take it out of his hand. Oneof the blacks therefore took it from him, and gave it to me, and Itook a little down my palate, which, instead of reviving me, asthey thought it would, threw me into the greatest consternation atthe strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any suchliquor before. Soon after this, the blacks who brought me on boardwent off, and left me abandoned to despair. I now saw myselfdeprived of any chance of returning to my native country, or eventhe least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I nowconsidered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery, inpreference to my present situation, which was filled with horrorsof every kind, still heightened by my ignorance of what I was toundergo. I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soonput down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation inmy nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that, withthe loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became sosick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desireto taste any thing. I now wished for the last friend, Death, torelieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered meeatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast bythe hands, and laid me across, I think, the windlass, and tied myfeet, while the other flogged me severely....
Source: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano(London: 1793), in David Northrup, ed., The Atlantic Slave Trade(Lexington, Mass.: D. C. Heath, 1994) 77-78.
