Journal #11 Olaudah Equiano: A Horrific Experience

QUOTE:

“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” (Equiano 684).


SUMMARY:

The conditions of the slave ships are absolutely horrible for the African slaves (the “cargo”), who now must all be crammed under deck. The “whites” are also especially cruel to the suffering dejected slaves.


RESPONSE:

Of course this quote can be easily discussed regarding the behavior of “the whites” and how cruel they are to the people they have enslaved, but I would like to discuss it based more on the perseverance of Equiano, or any enslaved person for that matter. The slaves weren’t even really sure what was happening, or how it was happening, but they had to survive the harsh conditions during the voyage through The Middle Passage (although unfortunately many did not survive). Just from reading about the Pilgrims, or other groups of people trying to cross the Atlantic, makes the experience the Africans had seem much worse considering it was not their choice to go in the first place, and they were purposely treated poorly.

Even if Equiano was never in Africa, as some may believe, there is no doubt that the horrible slave ships existed, and that many Africans were just “expendable cargo” in the eyes of their captors. However, I don’t really have any reason to think that none of these things happened to Equiano, so I pretty much believe his story. I can’t even imagine the horror Equiano, or any of the Africans, experienced with “[t]he shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying,” and especially the “intolerably loathsome” (Equiano 684) stench inside the hold.

If I had to think of one of the most terrible ways to die, I think falling into a vat or tub of shit would be up there in the top ten! I don’t think I could even handle having to deal with anything like that being only a few feet away from me. Anyone who survived these horrors had to have been extremely tough, and it’s pretty much appalling that after surviving the ordeal, the Africans got to conclude their dreadful experience with a life of servitude.