Equiano

Equiano Slave Narrator

"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 any thing. 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. I had never experienced any thing of this kind before, and although not being used to the water, I naturally feared that element the first time I saw it, yet, nevertheless, could I have got over the nettings, I would have jumped over the side, but I could not; and besides, the crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, lest we should leap into the water; and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut, for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating."

j

Reflection: I was amazed at the brutality of the sailors and the living conditions of the Africans below decks. The way they were punished for not eating, which to me seemed a bit backwards. The floggings for prisoners who attempted to commit suicide seemed to be stupid, as it most likely inclined them to try harder to do so.

j

Journal Entry: I am a sailor on board a slave trader bound for the Americas, it is my first time on such a boat and I must say I am apalled at the atrocities committed on this ship. It is true that the Africans are inferior and must be exposed to a level of physical violence and emotional degradation in order to make them submissive, but what these men are doing is torture; floggings for not eating, floggings for merely looking off the side of the boat and it is immediately interpreted by the sailors as a contemplation of suicide. The living conditions in which they are forced to survive are atrocious and are not fit for living beings. I must say this is the first and last time I will ever participate in such a journey as this one, my conscience cannot abide by it and I must take my leave from this ship and its miserable cargo.