0000070662 00000 n Download the student worksheet for Olaudah Equiano. After a number of further battles, they returned to England, where Equiano began to hope he might gain his freedom. Equiano takes the reader upon his journey as an African Slave beginning with his experiences in his native village, his numerous amounts of masters, cruelties and oppressions across the globe, and all the way to his success as a freeman. 0000002609 00000 n Complete your free account to request a guide. 0000003711 00000 n The Kingdom of Benin was located along the western cost of Africa, which was a common route of European slave traders who then transported the slaves to the New World. Buying and enslaving the people who supplied this labor ultimately became a lucrative and tragic part of the commerce in the maritime web that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas. Hence, making sense of the importance of his status and growth despite of his roots. There he saw a slave ship for the first time and was stunned by the cramped, unclean, even inhuman condition in which black Africans were confined on the ships. Equiano eventually purchased his freedom and lived in London where he advocated for abolition. Let Olaudah Equiano explain the Middle Passage to you in his own words.New videos every Tuesday (sometimes Monday! 0000122717 00000 n Olaudah Equiano Recalls the Middle Passage 1789 Olaudah Equiano (17451797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was born in Benin (in west Africa). One white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute. This made me fear these people the more; and I expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner. 0000008462 00000 n What was the Middle Passage? O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you Learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you? Equiano accompanied Pascal on a few more voyages in which they participated in battles of the French and Indian Wars, and then they left for Gibraltar and the Mediterranean. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Soon Doran sold Equiano to a Quaker merchant, Mr. Robert King, who treated Equiano with greater respect and acknowledged his substantial skills as a seaman. Is It Not Enough that We Are Torn From Our Country and Friends?: Olaudah Equiano Describes the Horrors of the Middle Passage, 1780s. First-person accounts of the Middle Passage are very rare. One of the blacks therefore took it from him and gave it to me, and I took a little down my palate, which, instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, threw me into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling it produced, having never tasted any such liquor before. 0000052522 00000 n Equianos autobiography was so popular that it ran through nine English editions and one printing in the United States and was translated into Dutch, German, and Russian during his lifetime. Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. One day, when we had a smooth sea, and a moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen, who were chained together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the nettings, and jumped into the sea: immediately another quite dejected fellow, who, on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed their example; and I believe many more would soon have done the same, if they had not been prevented by the ships crew, who were instantly alarmed. Legal. However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery. Equiano still observed a number of cases in which freemen were forced back into slaverysomething which nearly happened to him as welland this underlined for him the fragility of his freedom. When I recovered a little, I found some black people about me, who I believed were some of those who had brought me on board, and had been receiving their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, but all in vain. In it Equiano expresses a strong abolitionist stance and provides firsthand testimony of the transatlantic slave trade as well as a detailed description of life in what is present-day Nigeria. Documents discovered at the turn of the 21st century, which suggest that Olaudah Equiano may have been born in North America, have raised questions, still unresolved, about whether his accounts of Africa and the Middle Passage are based on memory, reading, or a combination of the two. They gave me to understand, we were to be carried to these white peoples country to work for them. Guilty over the accusation, King promised to lend Equiano money towards his freedom if the slave could raise an adequate amount himself. 0000011152 00000 n Abolitionist Sheet Music Cover Page, 1844, Barack Obama, Howard University Commencement Address (2016), Blueprint and Photograph of Christ Church, Constitutional Ratification Cartoon, 1789, Drawing of Uniforms of the American Revolution, Effects of the Fugitive Slave Law Lithograph, 1850, Genius of the Ladies Magazine Illustration, 1792, Missionary Society Membership Certificate, 1848, Painting of Enslaved Persons for Sale, 1861, The Fruit of Alcohol and Temperance Lithographs, 1849, The Society for United States Intellectual History Primary Source Reader, Bartolom de Las Casas Describes the Exploitation of Indigenous Peoples, 1542, Thomas Morton Reflects on Indians in New England, 1637, Alvar Nuez Cabeza de Vaca Travels through North America, 1542, Richard Hakluyt Makes the Case for English Colonization, 1584, John Winthrop Dreams of a City on a Hill, 1630, John Lawson Encounters Native Americans, 1709, A Gaspesian Man Defends His Way of Life, 1641, Manuel Trujillo Accuses Asencio Povia and Antonio Yuba of Sodomy, 1731, Olaudah Equiano Describes the Middle Passage, 1789, Francis Daniel Pastorius Describes his Ocean Voyage, 1684, Rose Davis is sentenced to a life of slavery, 1715, Boston trader Sarah Knight on her travels in Connecticut, 1704, Jonathan Edwards Revives Enfield, Connecticut, 1741, Samson Occom describes his conversion and ministry, 1768, Extracts from Gibson Cloughs War Journal, 1759, Alibamo Mingo, Choctaw leader, Reflects on the British and French, 1765, George R. 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Phelan, Why the Chinese Should Be Excluded (1901), William James on The Philippine Question (1903), Chinese Immigrants Confront Anti-Chinese Prejudice (1885, 1903), African Americans Debate Enlistment (1898), Booker T. Washington & W.E.B. Farmer allowed Equiano to develop his own commercial activities: starting with three pence, Equiano slowly built up savings and goods to trade himself. The clouds appeared to me to be land, which disappeared as they passed along. Up until December 18, 1865, when the law abolishing slavery in the U.S. was adopted, slavery remained a viable means of torture that would allow free labor and money for Southern Colonists. Equianos luck soon shifted when he was once again kidnapped and sold as a slave, this time he would have to endure the notoriously dreadful journey across the sea to America. All throughout their voyages, though, Equiano constantly struggled with unfair treatment by white men who refused to pay him or tried to cheat him. ships in the Middle Passage. Olaudah Equiano Describes the Middle Passage, 1789 In this harrowing description of the Middle Passage, Olaudah Equiano described the terror of the transatlantic slave trade. Soon after this, the blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me abandoned to despair. When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. He participated in one unsuccessful, though theoretically inspiring, voyage to Africa to return some former slaves to their place of origin. Equianos narrative is informative; however, it is critical of the treatment of slaves and persuasive in its appeals to end the brutal treatment of African Americans. Under Doran, Equiano traveled to the West Indies, where the subjugated state of the slaves there deeply affected him and reminded him of his own enslavement. The Life of Olaudah Equiano focuses on the various scenes to which Equiano or otherwise known as Gustavus Vassa was a witness too. 0000010446 00000 n Our, "Sooo much more helpful thanSparkNotes. Duration: 12 minutes What was the Middle Passage like? The drawing shows about 450 people; Olaudah Equiano (16 October 1745 - 31 March 1797), also known by the European name Gustavus Vassa, was born in what is now Nigeria. Olaudah Equiano begins his narrative by describing the customs of his native land in modern-day Nigeria. Many a time we were near suffocation, from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. When he was about ten years old, he was kidnapped by Africans known as Aros and sold into slavery. Struggling with distance learning? They told us we were not to be eaten, but to work, and were soon to go on land, where we should see many of our country people. No marks if Financial Functions are not used. the Brooks carried 609 on a voyage in 1786. was a little revived, and thought, if it were no worse than working, my situation was not so desperate; but still I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. Comparative to the area Equiano grew up in during his time as a child in Africa, the Europeans were far more technologically advanced, upon seeing ships for the first time he and other slaves agreed that it was magic that drove them due to a lack of understanding. He spoke out against the English slave trade. As you analyze the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of view that may be presented in the document. Equiano had been bought and sold throughout the Americas and Europe; he showed the, Olaudah Equianos The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavas Vassa, the African was first published in 1789 in London, England (687). His intended audience was his friends and the public. This is referred to as the Second Middle Passage as the first one was quite similar to it-- the original Middle Passage refers to the time and process in which slaves were first brought to the U.S. from Africa and even the West Indies. We did not know what to think of this; but as the vessel drew nearer, we plainly saw the harbor, and other ships of different kinds and sizes, and we soon anchored amongst them, off Bridgetown. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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