Olidah Equiano

Olidah Equiano
The Atlantic Voyage
"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. But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow. 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, and 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 in 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 soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many diedÑ-thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now became insupportable; 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 borror almost inconceivable. Happily perhaps, for myself, I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon 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."

Reflection:
In Olidah Equiano's capture from his homeland of Africa, he was treated to the cruelities of the white man in which he had to suffer the horrible conditions of the slave ship that he was put on. Equiano was forced to stay in the bottom decks of the boat with hundreds of others in the same situation that he was in. He was forced to live with disease, lack of air, lack of space, lack of food, and the beatings that he had to daily face, he couldn't jump off the boat due to the nets that were hung.

Diary:
I do not know what is happening. The white man is saying things in a tounge that I cannont understand. The others around me keep on saying that we are on our way to our deaths, and many have killed themselves. They dont feed us much, but none of us are ever hungry to eat, and when we dont eat they beat us and then take away our food. There have been many that have also jumped off of the ship, but they get caught up in the nets that cut their bodies, and when they are pulled back up they are beaten.

EQ:
Equiano had come to America without an American dream of his own. Instead he was made to suffer under the oppression of the white man and he was made a slave with no dreams to hope for.