In his memoir The Horrors of a Slave Ship, Olaudah Equiano narrates his experiences following one fateful day when he was captured and marked for slavery. The overarching theme is the terror and fright experienced by bound people during their transportation to work for their masters. Specifically, the sources of Olaudah’s misery included separation from his family, culture shock, starvation, torture, loss of freedom and identity, trafficking, and being treated as second-class citizens. Reading through the biography, an individual cannot help but sympathize with the slaves whose atrocities were so humiliating to the point that they craved an opportunity to commit suicide. The objective of this paper is to discuss and review Olaudah’s article focusing on his key arguments and subject matter.
The transition from being free and beloved to being a bound servant occurred fast, leaving the captured individuals in shock. Olaudah hints at him being the favorite of his mother due to his birth position as the lastborn and his sister is the only surviving daughter. The duo came from a privileged family, as evident by the fact that his father owned many slaves. However, the day he was captured, none of that mattered. They were caught and tied so that they did not ask for any help. Olaudah always hoped that he would find a way to return home, but after a failed attempt, it dawned on him that he had lost his freedom and family forever.
Slaves had no luxury; from the day they became bound their life was turned into misery. The night Olaudah and his sister were captured, they spent the night tied together in the forest. Nobody consoled them as they cried on each other’s oblivion of what the day would bring. Their fate turned out to be worse than they ever anticipated when the two were separated from each other the following day. From there, Olaudah narrates how he was sold from one master to the other, doing all kinds of odd jobs.
At one time, he was employed as a cook and poultry attendant for an old woman. While there, he accidentally killed one of the hens and had to escape to the plantations to avoid being flogged. At night, he heard snakes hissing; he was alone and afraid but could not unveil his hiding place because he feared the punishment. Such experiences were typical for slaves who were without any relatives and in a strange land.
Loss of identity coupled with culture shock made slaves live as though they were in a mystic world. He became a slave, a person who was used and purchased as a commodity without any regard for his feelings. At first, while working for Mr.Smith, he still had hope that he could escape and go back home, but the situation only became worse. Olaudah, like many slaves, experienced culture shock ranging from the difference in architectural structures, habits, and behaviors of the masters as well as the race of their transporters. At one point, while on the ship, Olaudah was convinced that they were in the land of mysterious man-eating spirits. Worse still, there was a language barrier between the blacks and the whites.
The color of their skin, their hair, and their unchastity manners only made it difficult for Olaudah and his colleagues to tolerate them. Such shock made life unbearable for the slaves because it was psychological torture.
The horrors of slaves across the sea were so severe that the Africans opted for death over continuing their journey. The Africans being shipped to their slavery destination were chained together in the ship. The food and drinks that the people were given were only enough to keep them alive. These conditions made some bound Blacks jump to the sea, and they immediately became heroes as every other Black wanted to follow their lead. Drowning was the best alternative at the moment because life had become unbearable, and everything was bound to get worse. The author uses imagery to help the readers picture the conditions of the slaves and understand the soberness of their decisions. There was no reason for them to live and no hope for them to find joy.
The hypocrisy of the masters was questionable, given their claim to be nominal Christians. The narration ends with the author questioning the incongruence between the actions of the White masters and their belief in God, who urged them to do unto others what they desire to be reciprocated. Friends and relatives were permanently separated from each other, and, even though they cried and plead, no person was ready to listen to their sorrows.
Married couples were separated, and children were left alone, not knowing their fate. The slave buyers did not care for the blacks were commodities to be dashed to whoever could afford them. The reader cannot help but question if the master had even a glimpse of consciousness or humanity in them. It was ironic that such people could still claim to know and serve God when they could not show any love to the foreigners they forced into their land. The memoir remains a reminder that without character and conviction, people are the worst creatures, as evident in how the masters and buyers treated the slaves.