The Enlightenment: Equiano, And The Enlightenment

The Enlightenment was a period of higher thinking and learning. It was a time when equal rights and ethics were being refined. Ironically, the enlightenment was also the peak of African slave trade in Europe and the New World, with the transatlantic slave trade beginning in 1551. During this time, a unique perspective on the subject was published in the French Encyclopedié by Frenchman Denis Diderot. This entry told of how some, so-called Christian, slave traders justified their work because the slaves were introduced to Christianity through being enslaved. However, during this time, a former slave named Equiano published a memoir of his life and the terrible, unjustifiable things that happened while enslaved. The entry in the Encyclopedié …show more content…
During times when the adults were working and the children were playing, one child would climb a tree to be a watchman, as assailants would come in attempts to kidnap children of the village. One day at the age of eleven, Equiano had climbed a tree to be watchman. From atop the tree, he witnessed strangers entering his village. Although, on this particular day, the assailants were stopped, both Equiano and his sister were eventually captured. Terrified, both Equiano and his sister were unable to escape their kidnappers. After a few terrifying days of travelling, Equiano and his sister were …show more content…
He was amazed by the sight of the ocean and the slave ship, but as he was being carried on board, his amazement turned into dread. The men on board looked so different from anyone he had ever seen before. Everything was strange and foreign to him. Upon seeing a large pot boiling with group of chained and destitute black men nearby, he fainted, overcome with the dread that he was to be eaten by the strange white men. After he awoke, the other slaves assured him that he was not to be eaten. But even after hearing this, Equiano preferred his past enslavement in Africa to the present situation on the foreign ship. He was rightfully fearful, as he was about to embark on the journey from Africa to the Americas, known as the “middle passage”. It estimated that nearly one-third of the slaves died during the “middle passage”, due to the terrible living conditions, unfair treatment, or suicide. Equiano was one of the few to survive this middle passage. Below deck, slaves were forced to live in their own filth. The air was filled with the smell of feces, urine, and all other sorts of foul smells. The sounds of despair filled the ship, with some slaves almost to the point of death. They were beaten and flogged for a number of reasons; if slaves refused to eat or if they attempted to throw themselves overboard. Olaudah Equiano