Wk. 4 Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

Question 1

Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

Answer 1

Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789) – Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was born in Africa, captured and transported as a slave. Eventually he was bought by a master who allowed him to buy his freedom. Equiano then went to London and became a leading voice in the movement to abolish the slave trade, which succeeded in 1807. In this excerpt, Equiano describes life in his homeland, his kidnapping, and his eventual journey across the Atlantic.

How was slavery integrated into West African culture and society?

• People from the Southwest do some trade but also bring and get slaves. “They generally bring us fire-arms, gunpowder, hats, beads, and dried fish. The last we esteemed a great rarity, as our waters were only brooks and springs” “They always carry slaves through our land; but the strictest account is exacted of their manner of procuring them before they are suffered to pass.”
• But the Africans had slaves as well. But the Africans rationalized that it was okay to have slaves because they were prisoners of war or crime.“Sometimes indeed we sold slaves to them, but they were only prisoners of war, or such among us as had been convicted of kidnapping or adultery, and some other crimes”
• The slave trader would actually pay a chief to get slaves for him. “When a trader wants slaves, he applies to a chief for them and tempts him with his wares. It is not extraordinary, if on this occasion he yields to the temptation with as little firmness, and accepts the price of his fellow creatures liberty with as little reluctance as the enlightened merchant. Accordingly he falls on his neighbors, and a desperate battle ensues. If he prevails and takes prisoners, he gratifies his avarice by selling them…”
• Everyone there is a soldier, perhaps because of this tribal warfare. “…even our women are warriors, and march boldly out to fight along with the men. Our whole district is a kind of militia:”

How was the slave trade in Africa linked to the larger global economy?

• Slaves from Africa were used to work the fields and provide labor across the globe.

Pay particular attention to the various commodities Equiano mentions: where did they come from originally?

• Our land (Africa) produces Indian Corn, Cotton, and Tobacco. “We have plenty of Indian corn, and vast quantities of cotton and tobacco.”

How was slavery in Africa different from slavery in America?

• They saw the outsider’s kidnapping for slaves as a much more heinous act.“This practice of kidnapping induces me to think, that, notwithstanding all our strictness their principal business among us was to trepan our people. I remember too they carried great sacks along with them, which not long after I had an opportunity of fatally seeing applied to that infamous purpose.”
• Compares slavery here to there.“Those prisoners which were not sold or redeemed we kept as slaves: but how different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! With us they do no more work than other members of the community, even their masters; their food, clothing and lodging were nearly the same as theirs, (except that they were not permitted to eat with those who were free-born); and there was scarce any other difference between them”
• Slavery was more of a hierarchy. “Some of these slaves have even slaves under them as their own property and for their own use”
• Slavery in the New World much different and worse than that back in Africa. Constant torture. “…I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind,”
• Improvident Avarice. Horror and loss of home and family.“In this manner, without scruple, are relations and friends separated, most of them never to see each other again.” “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.”
• Appealed to Christian ‘values’ and mercy – to no avail. “O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, “Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” 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?”
• There is common land used for both farming and war. “Our farming is exercised in a large plain or common, some hours walk from our dwellings, and all the neighbors resort thither in a body. This common is often the theater of war”