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Olaudah
Equiano
Olaudah
Equiano's account of his passage to the West Indies in 1756
Their
complexions, differing so much from ours, their long hair and the language they
spoke, which was different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm me in
this belief. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment,
that if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with
them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave of my own
country. When I looked around the ship 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 my fate. Quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on
the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little, I found some black people about
me, and I believe some were those who had brought me on board and had been
receiving their pay. They talked to me in order to cheer me up, but all in vain.
I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those white men with horrible looks,
red faces and long hair. They told me I was not.
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 such liquor before. Soon after this, the blacks
who had brought me on board went off and left me abandoned to despair.
I
now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country or even
the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now considered as
friendly. I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present
situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind.
There
I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my
life. With the loathesomeness of the stench and the crying together, I became so
sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste
anything. I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me.
Soon,
to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables and on my refusing to eat,
one of them held me fast by the hands and laid me across the windlass and tied
my feet while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced anything of
this kind before. If I could have gotten over the nettings, I would have jumped
over the side, but I could not. The crew used to watch very closely those of us
who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water. I
have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting
to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with
myself.
I
inquired of these what was to be done with us. They gave me to understand we
were to be carried to these white people's country to work for them. I then was
a little revived, and thought if it were no worse than working, my situation was
not so desperate. But still I feared that I should be put to death, the white
people looked and acted in so savage a manner. I have never seen among my people
such instances of brutal cruelty, and this not only shown towards us blacks, but
also to some of the whites themselves.
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.
I
asked them if these people had no country, but lived in this hollow place? They
told me they did not but came from a distant land. "Then," said I,
"how comes it that in all our country we never heard of them?"
They
told me because they lived so far off. I then asked where were their women? Had
they any like themselves? I was told they had.
"And
why do we not see them" I asked. They answered, "Because they were
left behind."
I
asked how the vessel would go? They told me they could not tell, but there was
cloth put upon the masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then vessels went
on, and the white men had some spell or magic they put in the water when they
liked in order to stop the vessel when they liked.
I
was exceedingly amazed at this account, and really thought they were spirits. I
therefore wished much to be from amongst them, for I expected they would
sacrifice me. But my wishes were in vain- - for we were so quartered that it was
impossible for us to make our escape.
At
last, when the ship we were in had got in all her cargo, they made ready with
many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not see
how they managed the vessel.
The
stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that
it was dangerous to remain there for any time...some of us had been permitted to
stay on the deck for the fresh air. But now that the whole ship's cargo were
confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place
and the heat of the climate, added to the number of the ship, which was so
crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.
This
produced copious perspirations so that the air became unfit for respiration from
a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of
which many died- - thus falling victims of the improvident avarice, as I may
call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by
the galling of the chains, which now became insupportable, and the filth of the
necessary tubs [toilets] into which the children often fell and were almost
suffocated. The shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying rendered the
whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.
Happily
perhaps for myself, I was soon reduced so low that it was necessary to keep me
almost always on deck and from my extreme youth I was not put into fetters. In
this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of
whom were almost daily brought upon the deck at the point of death, which I
began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of
the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the
freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for
theirs. Every circumstance I met with, served only to render my state more
painful and heightened my apprehensions and my opinion of the cruelty of the
whites.
One
day, when we had a smooth sea and 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, followed their example. I believe many more
would very soon have done the same if they had not been prevented by the ship's
crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were the most active were in
a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion among
the people of the ship as I never heard before to stop her and get the boat out
to go after the slaves. 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.
I
can now relate hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a
time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often
without for whole days together. This, and the stench of the necessary tubs,
carried off many.
"Slavery... I didn't know about all these forms that existed. I think it's largely because we aren't expecting it. It is hidden. Generally people would not believe that it is possible under modern conditions. They would say 'No, I think you are making it all up', because it's just too incredible..." (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Hull, UK, 1999) |
Contact me: Peter Garwood