Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano

The Rough Ride Over
(An exposition of the ride to the Americas coming from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.) In the late seventeenth century, slave trade was introduced to the Americas to help work the large plantations that scattered the east coast. Slaves were used for many tasks: clearing fields, planting, caring for, and harvesting crops, daily chores around the estate, and even caring for their owners. Should a serf ever step out of line, they were met with a whipping, burning, cutting off of appendages, starvation or death. Stephanie Yuhl states, “…a terrified slave being sold on the auction block, to the crack of the auctioneer 's whip,” describing their physical and mental state at being captives. Despite these many horrors, there were many more on the ride to America from their home continent of Africa, as depicted by Olaudah Equiano in, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. The ride over to North America was met with many complications; The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, …show more content…
Since the conditions were so tight, and movement restricted, slaves were living in their -and others- fecal waste. This made for some prodigiously unsanitary conditions. Christopher Hudson said the following about the slave conditions, “Dysentery, known as the bloody flux, was the biggest killer, followed by malignant fevers, including malaria, and dehydration, especially in the tropics.” Although he wasn’t aware of the correct terminology, Olaudah also supports this claim, “This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died…” Obviously, the circumstances of the slave ships were atrocious enough to kill