HIS STORY V

     At last we came to the island of Barbados. Many merchants and planters came on board. They looked us over. I thought we would be eaten by these ugly men. We were taken on shore. There we were penned up together like so many sheep. The slave buyers hurried to make their choices. Families and friends were separated. Several brothers were sold in different lots.
     Let me ask you. Isn't it bad enough that we are torn from our country? That we must work to make you rich? Why must parents also lose their children? Why must husbands lose their wives? Surely this is some new form of cruelty.

     To read the narrative in it's entirety pick up a copy of the above book. To read more info on Olaudah Equiano GOOGLE his name.

HIS STORY PART III

     "I found some men of my own nation. I asked what was to be done with us. They said we were to be carried to the White people's country. We were to work for them. I still feared that I would be killed. The White people looked so savage. I had never seen anyone act so cruel."

Olaudah Equiano tells what it was like to become a slave in his narrative.

AS A MATTER OF FACT!

The first Europeans to trade for gold in West Africa were the Portuguese. But what they ultimately discovered was an endless supply of Black workers.

A slave ship took about 2-3 months to cross the Atlantic Ocean. This terrible journey of a slave ship was called the MIDDLE PASSAGE. Thousands died from disease. So many dead bodies were thrown overboard that sharks followed the ships across the ocean.

Black people first came to America as INDENTURED SERVANTS. Indentured servants worked under an agreement for a colonist for a period of seven years, after which they were freed from their contract. Being a SLAVE was for life. Slaves were property with no human rights whatsoever. They were treated as a commodity to be sold or traded at their master's whim.

HIS - STORY PART II

     "TWO OF THE WHITE MEN GAVE ME FOOD. I REFUSED TO EAT. ONE OF THEM TIED MY FEET. THE OTHER BEAT ME VERY HARD. I WOULD HAVE JUMPED OVER THE SIDE, BUT I COULD NOT. THERE WERE NETS AROUND THE SHIP. AND BESIDES THE CREW WATCHED US CLOSELY."

Olaudah Equiano  was born in Nigeria around 1745. He was captured and sent to Boston. He was around ll years old at the time.

HIS - STORY PART I

OLAUDAH EQUIANO was born in Nigeria around 1745. He was captured in West Africa when he was around 11 years old. In his own words, Olaudah Equiano tells what it was like :

"WE ARRIVED AT THE COAST. THE FIRST THING I SAW WAS A SLAVE SHIP. I WAS CARRIED ON BOARD. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO BE KILLED. I SAW MANY BLACK PEOPLE. THEY WERE CHAINED TOGETHER. I WAS PUT UNDER THE DECKS. A TERRIBLE SMELL GREETED MY NOSE. I BECAME SICK AND WAS NOT ABLE TO EAT...

To read the complete narrative of OLAUDAH EQUIANO Google his name and get a copy of his book. After you are familiar with his account, consider the following questions:

1 - Why was it dangerous to be on the slave ship?
2 - Why, do you think, did the slave traders beat Equiano when he would not eat?
3 - What did Equiano think of his captors?

IN THE BEGINNING...

     The genesis of the Black community started aboard the slave ships transporting enslaved Africans from their homeland to America. In Africa, they had lived a varied life. Women, as well as, men were skilled farmers and traders.

They played interesting kinds of music. Their story-tellers passed along famous tales and poems in the oral tradition. African artists made beautiful masks, statues, and gold jewelry.

In the early 1400s, Europeans began traveling beyond their own lands looking for new wealth. The Portuguese began trading for gold in West Africa. But then, they discovered something worth more than gold. They began trading the Africans as slaves to plantation owners in the New World.

Soon the slave trade became a big business. Local African tribal chiefs captured their own people from neighboring tribes and traded with the Europeans from England, Holland, Spain, and Portugal for knives, cloth, guns, and other cheap goods.

The captured Africans were chained together and packed on narrow wooded shelves on board the ship. The filth and stench was terrible, and thousands of Africans died from diseases. The trip across the Atlantic took two months or more.


From about 1492 to 1776, more than 6.5 million people traveled across the Atlantic to the so-called New World. Millions more died during this terrible journey across the ocean, which is now called The Middle Passage.


Yet it was here that the Black community began, because despite their African tribal differences, including language and cultural traditions, they all had one thing in common:

They were being taken away from their homeland against their will. So they came together based on this commonality and decided how they would deal with it.

 Most often they rebelled by jumping into the ocean to their deaths, choosing to die rather than be enslaved. Those who did not, bonded together and helped each other to survive the arduous trip across the Atlantic. They shared food, water  and prayers to their gods, and  by whatever means they could, they made it to the other side.