Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano
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Olaudah
Equiano
was born in Essaka, an Igbo village in the kingdom of Benin, in 1745.
His father was one of the province's elders who decided disputes.
When he was about eleven, Equiano was kidnapped and after six months
of captivity he was brought to the coast where he encountered white
men for the first time.
Sold to slave-traders, Equiano was transported to Barbados. After
a two-week stay in the West Indies Equiano was sent to the English
colony of Virginia. He was later purchased by Captain Henry Pascal,
a British naval officer.
Equiano saved whatever money he could, and in 1766 purchased his freedom.
He then worked closely with Granvile Sharpe
and Thomas Clarkson in the Society
for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Equiano
spoke at a large number of public meetings where he described the
cruelty of the slave trade.
Equiano
was also a close friend of Thomas Hardy,
secretary of the London Corresponding
Society. Equiano became an active member of this political society
that campaigned in favour of universal suffrage.
In
1787 Equiano helped his friend, Offobah
Cugoano,
to published an account of his experiences, Narrative
of the Enslavement of a Native of America.
Copies of his book was sent to George
III and leading
politicians. He failed to persuade the king to change his opinions
and like other members of the royal family remained against abolition
of the slave trade.
Equiano published his own autobiography, The
Life of Olaudah Equiano the African in 1789. He travelled
throughout England promoting the book. It became a bestseller and
was also published in Germany
(1790),
America
(1791) and Holland (1791). He also spent over eight months in Ireland
where he made several speeches on the evils of the slave trade. While
he was there he sold over 1,900 copies of his book.
In
1792 Equiano married Susan Cullen of Ely. The couple had two children,
Anna Maria and Johanna. However, Anna Maria died when she was only
four years old.
Olaudah Equiano was appointed to the expedition to settle former black
slaves in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa. However, he died
on 31st March, 1797 before he could complete the task.
(1)
Olaudah Equiano,
letter to Gordon Turnbull after the publication of his book Apology
for Negro Slavery, in the Public Advertiser published
on 5th February, 1788.
To kidnap our fellow creatures, however they
may differ in complexion,
to degrade them into beasts of burthen, to deny them every right
but those, and scarcely those we allow to a horse, to keep them
in perpetual servitude, is a crime as unjustifiable as cruel;
but to avow and to defend this infamous traffic required the ability
and the modesty of you and Mr. Tobin. Can any man be a Christian
who asserts that one part of the human race were ordained to be
in perpetual bondage to another.
(2)
Olaudah
Equiano, The
Life of Olaudah Equiano the African (1789)
I was born, in the year 1745, in a charming
fruitful vale, named Essaka. The distance of this province from
the capital of Benin and the sea coast must be very considerable;
for I had never heard of white men or Europeans, nor of the sea.
The dress of both sexes is nearly the same. It generally consists
of a long piece of calico, or muslin, wrapped loosely round the
body, somewhat in the form of a highland plaid. This is usually
dyed blue, which is our favourite colour. It is extracted from a
berry, and is brighter and richer than any I have seen in Europe.
Besides this, our women of distinction wear golden ornaments; which
they dispose with some profusion on their arms and legs. When our
women are not employed with the men in tillage, their usual occupation
is spinning and weaving cotton, which they afterwards dye, and make
it into garments. They also manufacture earthen vessels, of which
we have many kinds.
(3)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
Generally, when the grown people in the neighbourhood were gone
far in the fields to labour, the children assembled together in
some of the neighborhood's premises to play; and commonly some of
us used to get up a tree to look out for any assailant, or kidnapper,
that might come upon us; for they sometimes took those opportunities
of our parents' absence, to attack and carry off as many as they
could seize.
One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual,
and only I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men
and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both;
and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they
stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Here
they tied our hands, and continued to carry us as far as they could,
till night came on, when we reached a small house, where the robbers
halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound;
but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by
fatigue and grief, our only relief was some sleep, which allayed
our misfortune for a short time.
(4)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
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. These filled me with astonishment, which
was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was
immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some
of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world
of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me.
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. 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.
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. 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. 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: and one of the crew brought me a small portion of
spirituous liquor in a wine glass, but, being afraid of him, I would
not take it out of his hand. 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, throw me
into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling it produced,
having never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after this, the
blacks who brought me on board went off, and left me abandoned to
despair.
(5)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a
greeting 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. 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.
The white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a
manner; for I had never seen among my people such instances of brutal
cruelty. 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.
The air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome
smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many
died. The wretched situation was again aggravated by the chains,
now unsupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs, 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.
(6)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
At last, we came in sight of the island of Barbados,
at which the whites on board gave a great shout, and made many signs
of joy to us. 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.
Many merchants and planters now came on board, though it was in
the evening. They put us in separate parcels, and examined us attentively.
They also made us jump, and pointed to the land, signifying we were
to go there. 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. 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. This report eased us much.
And sure enough, soon after we were landed, there came to us Africans
of all languages.
(7)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
We were conducted immediately to the merchant's yard, where we were
all pent up together, like so many sheep in a fold, without regard
to sex or age. As every object was new to me, every thing I saw
filled me with surprise. What struck me first, was, that the houses
were built with bricks and stories, and in every other respect different
from those I had seen in Africa; but I was still more astonished
on seeing people on horseback. I did not know what this could mean;
and, indeed, I thought these people were full of nothing but magical
arts.
(8)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
We were not many days in the merchant's custody, before we were
sold after their usual manner, which is this: On a signal given,
(as the beat of a drum) the buyers rush at once into the yard where
the slaves are confined, and make choice of that parcel they like
best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended, and the
eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a
little to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans, who may
well be supposed to consider them as the ministers of that destruction
to which they think themselves devoted.
In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated,
most of them never to see each other again. I remember, in the vessel
in which I was brought over, in the men's 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. Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and
friends, to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender
feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice? Are the dearest
friends and relations, now rendered more dear by their separation
from their kindred, still to be parted from each other, and thus
prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery, with the small comfort
of being together; and mingling their sufferings and sorrows? Why
are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, husbands
their wives? Surely, this is a new refinement in cruelty, which,
while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress;
and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.
(9)
Olaudah Equiano,
The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African
(1789)
While I was thus employed by my master, I was often a witness to
cruelties of every kind, which were exercised on my unhappy fellow
slaves. I used frequently to have different cargoes of new Negroes
in my care for sale; and it was almost a constant practice with
our clerks, and other whites, to commit violent depredations on
the chastity of the female slaves; and these I was, though with
reluctance, obliged to submit to at all times, being unable to help
them. When we have had some of these slaves on board my master's
vessels, to carry them to other islands, or to America, I have known
our mates to commit these acts most shamefully, to the disgrace,
not of Christians only, but of men. I have even known them to gratify
their brutal passion with females not ten years old; and these abominations,
some of them practised to such scandalous excess, that one of our
captains discharged the mate and others on that account. And yet
in Montserrat I have seen a Negro man staked to the ground, and
cut most shockingly, and then his ears cut off bit by bit, because
he had been connected with a white woman, who was a common prostitute.
As if it were no crime in the whites to rob an innocent African
girl of her virtue, but most heinous in a black man only to gratify
a passion of nature, where the temptation was offered by one of
a different color, though the most abandoned woman of her species.
(10)
Olaudah
Equiano, The
Life of Olaudah Equiano the African (1789)
One man told me that he had sold 41,000 negroes,
and that he once cut of a negro man's leg for running away. I told
him that the Christian doctrine taught us to do unto others as we
would that others should do unto us. He then said that his scheme
had the desired effect - it cured that man and some others of running
away.
Another negro man was half hanged, and then burnt, for attempting
to poison a cruel overseer. Thus, by repeated cruelties, are the
wretched first urged to despair, and then murdered, because they
still retain so much of human nature about them as to wish to put
an end to their misery, and retaliate on their tyrants. These overseers
are indeed for the most part persons of the worst character of any
denomination of men in the West Indies. Unfortunately, many humane
gentlemen, but not residing on their estates, are obliged to leave
the management of them in the hands of these human butchers, who
cut and mangle the slaves in a shocking manner on the most trifling
occasions, and altogether treat them in every respect like brutes.
(11)
Olaudah
Equiano, The
Life of Olaudah Equiano the African (1789)
Their huts, which ought to be well covered, and the place dry where
they take their little repose, are often open sheds, built in damp
places; so that when the poor creatures return tired from the toils
of the field, they contract many disorders, from being exposed to
the damp air in this uncomfortable state, while they are heated,
and their pores are open. This neglect certainly conspires with
many others to cause a decrease in the births as well as in the
lives of the grown negroes.
(12)
Olaudah
Equiano, The
Life of Olaudah Equiano the African (1789)
I knew one man in Montserrat whose slaves looked remarkably well,
and never needed any fresh supplies of negroes; and there are many
other estates, especially in Barbados, which, from such judicious
treatment, need no fresh stock of negroes at any time. I have the
honor of knowing a most worthy and humane gentleman, who is a native
of Barbados, and has estates there. He allows them two hours of
refreshment at mid-day, and many other indulgencies and comforts,
particularly in their lodging; and, besides this, he raises more
provisions on his estate than they can destroy; so that by these
attentions he saves the lives of his negroes, and keeps them healthy,
and as happy as the condition of slavery can admit.
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