The Transatlantic Slave Trade Olaudah Equiano Summary

Many attribute the transatlantic slave trade to merely being an overtly inhumane business transaction of the past; therefore, many of the descriptions of this time are often generic and fail to give any true insight into the reality of these circumstances. Olaudah Equiano’s first hand account provides the reader with great insights into life of an African from capture, aboard the ship during the middle passage, and landing in Barbados in 1789. Equiano’s candid perspective as an individual who lived to tell the tale of the slave trade is more significant than that from the perspective of a trader because they had a limited insight into the events Africans faced during this time. Slave traders and captains of ships merely saw the slave trade as an occupation and
Equiano begins his account by stating that he was captured as a child he was taken to the coast after roughly six to seven months. He then describes several key elements: the white men, African thought’s of their final destination, and conditions aboard the ship. Equiano states he had never seen the white men who were a stark contrast to his own appearance with long hair and pale skin, he believed them to be before being flogged for not eating and witnessing them punish other Africans and even their own for any infraction. He then describes the unsanitary living conditions, attributed to close living quarters under deck. The physical detriments were many putrid smells of death, bodily fluids, and of the ailments suffered as illness spread easily in these conditions. Lastly, throughout