Atlantic Slave Trade By Olaudah Equiano

The Atlantic Slave Trade began during the 15th century and lasted until the early 18th century. It was believed that the sugar cultivation, which started in Southeast Asia and was then transported to regions in Africa, played a role as to why regions such as Congo and Guinea in West Africa were one of the largest areas involved (Campbell). As the sugar spread from continent to continent, so did slavery. Many people, predominantly from West Africa, were torn away from their family and homes and were forced to migrate to developing regions in North and South America to become slaves or servants. This extensive and dreadful voyage in over populated ships took about 7-13 weeks, depending on the weather (Campbell). For the most part, the primary …show more content…
Equiano who was capture by slave traders in the 1750s was a son of a West African village chief. In his diary, he expresses his sorrow about the evil of slavery and the torment and anguish that he had to go through during this time. Equiano explained, “their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, united to confirm me in this belief” (Course Reader 52). In this statement by Equiano, he expressed his feelings about being out of his comfort zone after being kidnapped due to his personal comparison of his physical appearance compared to the white men and the fact that he did not even speak their language. He even felt more out of place when he saw that only people of his complexion were tortured when he expressed, “and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate” (Course Reader 53). In this statement, it shows the author’s loss of hope and expectations. The author was the youngest of all sons, was kidnapped away from his family who he feels he might not ever see again, and is being brought to an unfamiliar place to become a slave. All this built up negativity has given Equiano a reason to conclude that slavery is …show more content…
Although these primary sources, such as letters or diaries written by planters and supercargos, are present and can be used to provide some information about the Atlantic Slave Trade, there is a lack of sources from the slaves themselves to express their own experience during this dreadful time in American history. In spite the other fact that these sources are credible because they are all written by authors who lived through the Atlantic Slave Trade or the Middle Passage and experienced this period personally, all sources may be considered biased due to the situation that these supercargo/officers, and lawmakers were in during this time. Beverly and Barbot were both considered slave leaders, had some good intentions towards slavery, and did what they thought was ethical but they were not on the other side of the spectrum as slaves like Olaudah Equiano was to be able to truly illustrate the horror that was experienced by many from this era. Mittelberger’s diary greatly described slavery and the Middle Passage in his own perspective but he was not a slave himself and had his freedom throughout his writing unlike the slaves that he serviced for during that