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2 vols. Source: Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The Interesting Narrative of the Fusce dui lectus, congue vel laoreet ac, d, View answer & additonal benefits from the subscription, Explore recently answered questions from the same subject, Explore documents and answered questions from similar courses. Olaudah Equianos first-person account recalls his terrifying journey as an 11-year-old captive aboard a slave ship from Africa to Barbados in 1756. 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Hewes, A Retrospect of the Boston Tea-party, 1834, Thomas Paine Calls for American independence, 1776, Women in South Carolina Experience Occupation, 1780, Boston King recalls fighting for the British and for his freedom, 1798, Abigail and John Adams Converse on Womens Rights, 1776, Hector St. Jean de Crvecur Describes the American people, 1782, A Confederation of Native peoples seek peace with the United States, 1786, Mary Smith Cranch comments on politics, 1786-87, James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785, George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796, Venture Smith, A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, 1798, Letter of Cato and Petition by the negroes who obtained freedom by the late act, in Postscript to the Freemans Journal, September 21, 1781, Black scientist Benjamin Banneker demonstrates Black intelligence to Thomas Jefferson, 1791, Creek headman Alexander McGillivray (Hoboi-Hili-Miko) seeks to build an alliance with Spain, 1785, Tecumseh Calls for Native American Resistance, 1810, Abigail Bailey Escapes an Abusive Relationship, 1815, James Madison Asks Congress to Support Internal Improvements, 1815, A Traveler Describes Life Along the Erie Canal, 1829, Maria Stewart bemoans the consequences of racism, 1832, Rebecca Burlend recalls her emigration from England to Illinois, 1848, Harriet H. 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Board of Education of Topeka (1954), Richard Nixon on the American Standard of Living (1959), John F. Kennedy on the Separation of Church and State (1960), Congressman Arthur L. Miller Gives the Putrid Facts About Homosexuality (1950), Rosa Parks on Life in Montgomery, Alabama (1956-1958), Barry Goldwater, Republican Nomination Acceptance Speech (1964), Lyndon Johnson on Voting Rights and the American Promise (1965), Lyndon Johnson, Howard University Commencement Address (1965), National Organization for Women, Statement of Purpose (1966), George M. Garcia, Vietnam Veteran, Oral Interview (1969/2012), Fannie Lou Hamer: Testimony at the Democratic National Convention 1964, Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1968), Statement by John Kerry of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1971), Barbara Jordan, 1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote Address (1976), Jimmy Carter, Crisis of Confidence (1979), Gloria Steinem on Equal Rights for Women (1970), First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan (1981), Jerry Falwell on the Homosexual Revolution (1981), Statements from The Parents Music Resource Center (1985), Phyllis Schlafly on Womens Responsibility for Sexual Harassment (1981), Jesse Jackson on the Rainbow Coalition (1984), Bill Clinton on Free Trade and Financial Deregulation (1993-2000), The 9/11 Commission Report, Reflecting On A Generational Challenge (2004), George W. Bush on the Post-9/11 World (2002), Pedro Lopez on His Mothers Deportation (2008/2015), Chelsea Manning Petitions for a Pardon (2013), Emily Doe (Chanel Miller), Victim Impact Statement (2015). They told me they did not, but came from a distant one. I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me; but 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, I think, the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. When Vincent Carretta argued in "Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa? 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. Many a time we were near suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, approximately 12 million Africans were transported across the Atlantic as human property. 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. More books than SparkNotes. It emphasizes the inhumane conditions the slaves were forced to endure at the hands of European cruelty. Their complexions, too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke (which was very different from any I had ever heard), united to confirm me in this belief. This African chant mourns the loss of Olaudah Equiano, an 11-year-old boy and son of an African tribal leader who was kidnapped in 1755, from his home far from the African coast, in what is now Nigeria. The captives were about to embark on the infamous Middle Passage, so called because it was the middle leg of a three-part voyage -- a voyage that began and ended in Europe. 0000010721 00000 n 1789. Course Hero is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university. We were conducted immediately to the merchants yard, where we were all pent up together, like so many sheep in a fold, without regard to sex or age. I understood them, though they were from a distant part of Africa; and I thought it odd I had not seen any horses there; but afterwards, when I came to converse with different Africans, I found they had many horses amongst them, and much larger than those I then saw. Throughout the years of being a slaves he was treated very nicely and became a very valuable slave to his masters. Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, in 1789 as a two-volume work. They at last took notice of my surprise; and one of them, willing to increase it, as well as to gratify my curiosity, made me one day look through it. Significant Form, Style, or Artistic Conventions I always discuss Equiano's work in conjunction with the whole genre of spiritual autobiography. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable. But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs. Some of these documents have been edited, but all are authentic. The Atlantic passage, or Middle Passage, usually to Brazil or an island in the Caribbean, was notorious for its brutality and for the overcrowded unsanitary conditions on slave ships, in which hundreds of Africans were packed tightly into tiers below decks for a voyage of about 5,000 miles (8,000 km) that could last from a few weeks to several 0000002609 00000 n As soon as the whites saw it, they gave a great shout, at which we were amazed; and the more so, as the vessel appeared larger by approaching nearer. (London: Author, 1789), Vol. 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. Pellentesque dapibus efficitur laoreet. The Life of Olaudah Equiano Summary. Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends, to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Lent by the National Museum of African American History and I could not help expressing my fears and apprehensions to some of my countrymen; I asked them if these people had no country, but lived in this hollow place (the ship)? I asked how the vessel could go? 0000005629 00000 n 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. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. 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. He is not writing it out of vanity or because he is one of the great men about whom people are accustomed to reading in memoirs. After being sold What differences do you see? This heightened my wonder; and I was now more persuaded than ever, that I was in another world, and that every thing about me was magic. Source: Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Olaudah Equiano's first-person account recalls his terrifying journey as an 11-year-old captive aboard a slave ship from Africa to Barbados in 1756. Listen to a dramatic reading of his narrative, and then study the supporting primary sources to answer the discussion questions. While we stayed on the coast I was mostly on deck; and one day, to my great astonishment, I saw one of these vessels coming in with the sails up. I remember, in the vessel in which I was brought over, in the mens apartment, there were several brothers, who, in the sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion, to see and hear their cries at parting. 0000091145 00000 n . O, ye nominal Christians! This report eased us much. Working from measurements of a Liverpool slave ship, a We thought by this, we should be eaten by these ugly men, as they appeared to us; and, when soon after we were all put down under the deck again, there was much dread and trembling among us, and nothing but bitter cries to be heard all the night from these apprehensions, insomuch, that at last the white people got some old slaves from the land to pacify us. 0000007945 00000 n Courtesy National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, NPG.78.82. Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? I was not long suffered to indulge my grief; I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste anything. 4.8: Primary Source: Olaudah Equiano is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts. Many a time we were near suffocation, from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. 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 in my own country. As every object was new to me, everything I saw filled me with surprise. Equiano was abducted at a young age and became a slave. 0000091628 00000 n OLAUDAH EQUIANO RECALLS THE MIDDLE PASSAGE 7. B ) It implies that the slaves were kept dirty so as to Image of Olaudah Equiano: Engraving by Daniel Orme, after W. Denton, 1789. Olaudah Equiano, an . The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. To illustrate how much the slaves were torn from their own culture and forced into a brutal and unfamiliar one. The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo.