The Middle Passage
By
Olaudah Equiano
Soon after the Europeans’ first explorations of the Americas, trading slaves developed between Africa and the Americas. Slave traders took Africans from their homes, families, and ways of life in Africa, and brought them to the New World aboard slave ships. A captured African man, Olaudah Equiano (or, as he came to be known, Gustavus Vasa), described the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean as follows:
Then I was carried on board, some of the crew handled me immediately to see if I was healthy. I was convinced that I had entered into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their different complexions and language confirmed this belief. When I looked around the ship, I saw a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their faces expressing dejection and sorrow.
I was soon out under the decks. The smell was so terrible that that I was unable to eat. I now wished for death to relieve my grief. Two of the white men offered me something to eat, and when I refused, one of them held me so fast by the hands, while the other tied my feet. They then whipped me severely. They then put coals of fire, glowing hot, on a shovel so near my lips as to scorch and burn them. They threatened to make me swallow the hot coals unless I ate something.
The place for the slaves under the deck was terribly hot. The captives were chained to the wall in such a way so that their knees were drawn up close to their chests. The heat produced great perspiration, so that the air was soon unfit for breathing, and brought on a sickness among many slaves, of which many died. This terrible situation was aggravated by the sores caused by the chains, and the filth of the tubs filled with human waste. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, made the scene one of horror. Those captives who died were unchained and members of the crew threw them overboard.
Complete the following chart by stating how Olaudah suffered physically & psychologically during the middle passage.
Physically Psychologically