Rob Edwards
Equiano “Memoirs of a Former Slave”
An 18th century African from present day Nigeria
His life was unlike most slaves, he educated himself, started trading, and eventually purchased his freedom
Upon his capture in africa, Equiano thinks that he is being taken to a terrible place full of demons to be killed and eaten
Fear of the unknown makes him still wish to be a slave in his native country
He is whipped for not eating, and all the slaves on the ships are kept in terrible conditions with awful smells and quality of sanitation
As the slaves are kept under the hot deck of the ship, many of them die from the sheer lack of clean breathable air
Describes how the white man is the cruelest beast he has ever seen
They will beat the blacks almost to death, and the ones that do die on the voyage are simply tossed over the side like brutes
The full length of the journey is over 2 months to cross the Africa to the West Indies, and many slaves died along the way
All the slaves are astonished at the technology that the white man has once they arrive in the new world
After having their predicament explained to them by veteran slaves, all of the new crop was sold off or put to work
Many families were separated, and the selling of the slaves was extremely emotional for those blacks that lost family members to distant masters
Equiano claims that this “adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.”
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