Slavery 2
Oppression and cruelty; just two of the many words used to describe slavery. However no word or words can be used to truly illustrate the hardships and tough times that the slaves went through. In the time of slavery, innocent people were taken from their homes and separated from their families to be sold as workers to people around the world. They did not just work, similar to modern times, they were restrained and held captive while being forced to work in terrible and unsuitable conditions. These people had dark skin, which the slave owners saw as an asset due to the fact that they could stay in the sun longer. In particular was a slave by the name of Olaudah Equiano, who wrote a personal narrative on his own experiences during slavery. In his writings, he did an excellent job in highlighting the oppression and cruelty in his own life and other peoples as well. The point of his narrative was to turn the English public against slavery. Based on what I have read, I can now give a clearer opposition to slavery due to the fact that he has exemplified what slavery was really like. The idea of taking many, many people from their homelands and bringing them to a foreign place seems a bit over whelming. This seems like im
possibility when looked at by the slaves' point of view. During the times of slaves, the ships and such were not as advanced as they are now. They used wind and oars to power the boats. In addition, these boats were not being produced at a high rate. The point being the ships were so over crowded that it seemed pointless to ship slaves overseas. The slaves were put in these ships and packed into rooms that were not made to accommodate that many people. Equiano writes, "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 enough room to turn himself, almost suffocated us" (p.56). This was how the slaves were kept when they were put under the deck. Enormous amounts of people packed into one small space. In this situation, one must think about the possible outcomes. If there are a lot of people, literally on top have on another, outbreak of disease will eventually occur- and of course it did. Even before disease, there was the stench of people perspiring and the wretched sounds of the women crying. The chains that were attached to them and the filthy latrines that they had were not helping the situation. When sickness did break out, many of the slaves died. They are so close that it is impossible to save many. Now the question is brought up: Why? Why bring all these people on a ship, when more than half are not getting off alive. Many of the slaves on board the ship also committed, or at least tried, to commit suicide by jumping off the boat. "Two of my wearied countrymen who were chained together, preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the netting and jumped into the sea; immediately, another quite dejected fellow, who on account of his illness, was suffered to be out of irons, also followed his example" (p.57) says Equiano. He goes on to write how the crew stopped the boat and went into the water to get some of the slaves and further punish them by whipping them back on board. So, again the question, why do it? Although there was a lot of physical abuse there was most definitely mental torment. These people, who
Some common words found in the essay are:
Olaudah Equiano, , slave trade, times slaves, oppression cruelty, life fear, life ship, slaves ships, board ship,
Approximate Word count = 1452
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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