EN 301: Equiano Creative Writing Exercise
A.You are a compassionate white doctor aboard a slave ship from Africa to Brazil. Your job is to keep as many slaves alive as possible so they may be sold at auction upon arrival in Brazil. Describe a typical day at sea and the conditions belowdecks where the slaves are held.
Requirements:
At least three metaphors/similes.
At leastfive of the ten following vocabulary words: loathsome, pestilential, manacles, wretches, groans, infernal, inhumane, stench, diseased, flogging.
At least three lines of dialogue.
At least one description for each of the five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch.
B. You are a young slave who has endured the Middle Passage and come out on the other side (in America) alive. Describe the ordeal of the journey and your emotions at making it across only to soon be sold into slavery.
Requirements:
At least three metaphors/similes.
At leastfive of the ten following vocabulary words: noxious, vile, manacles, groans, exultation, elation, relief, sorrow, resignation, rage.
At least three lines of dialogue.
At least one description for each of the five senses: hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch.
Check these off as you write / Must includeScenario A. Five out of these ten vocab words: loathsome, pestilential, manacles, wretches, groans, infernal, inhumane, stench, diseased, flogging.
Scenario B. Five out of these ten vocab words:noxious, vile, manacles, groans, exultation, elation, relief, sorrow, resignation, rage
Descriptions tied to eachof the five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, touch
3 metaphors (My feet were concrete blocks) or similies (The sky was as dark as bruise).
Three lines of dialogue. (“Ahoy, first mate. When will we reach land?”)
Sample:
The Arrival of the Evildoers and My Journey Into Night
A Slave Narrative
On my last day of freedom, I was absentmindedly staring at my wavering reflection in the river, where my mother had sent me to fetch water. Just upriver, the roar of the rapids masked the sounds of a party of slavers crashing through the jungle behind me. Before I had a chance to react, one of the white ghosts had fettered my hands and feet with heavy manacles that bit my ankles and wrists like a cobra. I was forced to march for two grueling days and nights to the sea, and along the way imagined I had been able to say good-bye to mother.
“Do not worry, old woman. By constantly sending me to the river for water, you have made me strong enough to survive the evil ways of these white ghosts.”
“I love you, my brave little lion. Whatever you do, do not fight them and you will live to see many tomorrows.”
When at last I felt sand under my cracked and bleeding feet and tasted the sharp tang of the salt air, I beheld a horrible apparition: a wooden island with three bare trees covered with great sheets. I asked the poor wretch shackled in front of me what it was.
“I have heard of these monstrous creations. They will put us down below and we will vanish from view over the horizon.”
The sea was a sheet of glass as our pale masters put us in a fleet of small boats and rowed a few hundred of us out to the main ship. True to my friend’s prediction, we were sent below into an inky black hole lined with scores of unfortunate wretches. Long before my eyes could adjust, vile odors rose to my nostrils, telling of bodies changed together in oppressive heat, glazed with a noxious mixture of sticky fluids. I felt a flash of rage flash behind my eyes followed just as quickly with a defeated resignation. Mother was right, it was no use to fight these devil men.
For the next six weeks, we lay there groaning in pain as the ship smashed endlessly through the high seas. The horrific smells and clanking of our chains were our constant companions, perched like birds of death on our shoulders.
Finally, we heard the white men shout with exultation “Land Ho!” I had survived and so had my wise friend, but we felt deep sorrow over the many who were not as lucky. The hint of elation and relief at having survived was cruelly stamped out, however, when we learned our fate.
It was on to market for us all, where we would be sold like cattle and worked like dogs.