What Did Equiano Reveal About The Middle Passage Summary

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Olaudah Equiano Review Questions 1-4: What did Equiano reveal about the “middle passage”? Equiano revealed just how miserable and horrid the ‘middle passage’ was. Frequently, he witnessed fellow slaves dying one after another due to the awful conditions within the boat(such as suffocation due to poor air quality) or purposefully killing themselves. He also talks about how serious it was for both parties, with both the slaves and whites facing death if they were to make mistakes. Equiano explains, “I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw… flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute.”(Equiano 75) How did the slave trade operate in the West Indies? …show more content…

Instead, it was far more hectic and disorganized. Equiano writes, “On a signal given, the buyers rush at once into the yard where the slaves are confined, and make a choice of that parcel they like best. The noise and clamor with which this is attended, and the eagerness visible in the countenances of the buyers, serve not a little to increase the apprehension of terrified Africans…”(Equiano

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