Olaudah Equiano Captivity

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Slavery was and continues to be a horrible event on the world’s history. Holding people against their will, systematic torture, rape, beatings, and the separations of children from their parents. These are just a few of the horrors that slavery contains. But most of the millions of slaves past and present don’t get the chance to let their stories be heard. But luckily one slave was able to tell his story to the world, and his name was Olaudah Equiano. Olaudah Equiano was captured and sold it West Indies slavery in the 17th century. Throughout his life Olaudah witnessed the horrors of slavery, many of which I listed above. Olaudah purchased his freedom in 1767 and in 1789 wrote his memoir, The interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano…show more content…
Olaudah stated “tortures, murder, and every other imaginable barbarity and iniquity, are practiced upon the poor slaves with impunity.” (Equiano, pp. 157-158) The horrors that occurred in slavery were also happening in other places as well. When the Spanish were in the midst of conquering the Aztecs and Mayans they used some of the same brutal tactics to scare and conquer such as cutting off the feet or hands of runaways or burning and hanging men, women ,and babies. (Scofield, 2015) Some of the horrors that Olaudah experienced of witnessed were just as bad or even worse such as the tortures of the Barbados Islands where it was so bad the slave masters had to bring in unspeakable amounts of slaves to keep up with the original stock as Equiano states,” Yet this island requires 1000 Negros annually to keep up with the original stock which is only 80,000” (Equiano, pp. 63-64) this leads one to believe that the conditions one had to go through in captivity were so bad that they could barely keep up with the number of slaves needed. That stat in itself is appalling and can stand on its own and prove the point of the argument the things slaves wet through was appalling luckily someone was there to witness these acts and argue against them in the quest to end…show more content…
The passage on slaving ships one many slaves never saw to the end. The slaves onboard had to endure conditions that were unspeakable as Equiano states “The closeness of the place and the heat of the climate added to the number in the ship which was so crowded that each has scarcely rad room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.” (Equiano, p. 27). It is almost unimaginable how close and cramped the conditions onboard a slave ship were. To add to that Equiano says “One day they had taken a number of fishes; and when they had killed and satisfied themselves with as many as they thought fit , to our astonishment who were on deck, rather than give us any of them to eat as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea again, although we begged and prayed for some as well as we could, in vain; and some of our countrymen, being pressed b hunger, took an opportunity when they thought no one saw them, of trying to get a little privately; but they were discovered and the attempt procured them some very severe floggings.” (Equiano, pp. 28-29) So not only were the slaves onboard crammed together in tight quarters, deprived of basic hygiene, but they were also starved close to death, And if they even attempted to take food, they were beaten severely. Many slaves died on the passage to the Americas and Brittan because of the horrid conditions suffered aboard slave ships.

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