Is It Not Enough That We Are Torn From Our Country And Friends Summary

Is It Not Enough that We Are Torn From Our Country and Friends?”: Olaudah Equiano Describes the Horrors of the Middle Passage, 1780s is a letter written by a young boy who was put into slavery. The letter narrates Equiano’s experience while being transported to his destination. Olaudah Equiano was an African American boy born in Nigeria who was kidnapped at the age of 11. The author through his letter is able to explain in terror what he goes through at a young age during commercial trading of black African American children, men and women. Olaudah was placed in a place where he didn’t know anyone and was forced into labor and treated as property more than a human being. But he never got to believe African American deserved such cruel treatment …show more content…
They had jobs in houses and most often they would perform labor and production of goods such as tobacco and cotton. The jobs performed in homes consisted of cleaning, while men would perform labor for long hours. African American suffered all sorts of mistreatment and abuse. Women were rapped, men were tortured and families were separated. They had few rights or no rights at all. They were prohibited to read, write or get married but many did so anyway. African American were also prohibit of owning weapons for protection and when caught when an arm they were killed. They had no protection because by the law they property of the person who paid for them. It was more like a legal system; Louisiana law proclaimed, “A slave owes his master a respect without bonds and an absolute obedience”. Therefore there was not a lawyer or officer they could turn to for reporting these harsh treatments. Slaves form of resistance would include, working very slowly, violent rebellions, pretending they couldn’t do something and marriages. This was the only way they could get such revenge from the wealthy. Because being an African American meant having limited amount of opportunities to …show more content…
The happiness and the normal lives African American once had was gone from one day to another. Before the slave system African American used their labor and hunting skills to sustain their families. Women were household while children were taught socials structures. There was no way having guessed such harsh act would hit the lands of these minority groups. Although there were many of those who opposed to slavery, the majority of white people thought of slavery as good for social world. They thought slaves were being benefited from being enslaved just because they were paid with food and shelter. Overall the act of slavery was a time of crisis for African American, families were lost, children were forced to work long hours at a young and women were sexually