Horrors of a slave ship

The story is set at a crucial historical moment, just seven years after the British parliament abolished the transatlantic slave trade and just as the British government was starting to put pressure on all European slave-trading nations at the Congress of Vienna to end this inhumane traffic. This was especially the case afterwhen the British navy began policing the Atlantic and courts of Mixed Commission and Vice-Admiralty began adjudicating vessels engaged in this now illegal activity. In the real slave trade, even if the storm could have been avoided, a combination of overcrowding, lack of drinkable water, a bad diet, deadly diseases, and maltreatment would often have led to a similar outcome. There are plenty of actual documented cases like this over the next few decades, as slave traders were forced to conduct their activities in the shadows and as the few controls put in place to improve conditions on board slave vessels in the s were abandoned.

If orders were not followed, they were flogged unmercifully. Later, they were separated as they served different masters. He later reunited with his sister when they had the same master.

They cried of happiness as their mournful days were over; unfortunately, they were torn apart once again. His pain and anxiety was worse of what he had experienced after her fate. Equiano describes the many days he traveled and the frequent change of masters.

He was sold back and forth in the West Indies and England. He then served a wealthy widow. Receiving many benefits as in eating with them and being dressed well, he forgot he was a slave and became adopted to the wealthy family.

He was kidnapped again; however, this time, he arrived to a ship where slaves were being marketed. The slaves suffocated as there was little room to even move or breathe. The filth and heat brought sickness to the people; therefore, they cried and groaned as they slowly died. Equiano preferred his former slavery instead of the situation he was living on the deck.

Not only were blacks treated brutally but also the white people that misunderstood orders and did them wrong. Slaves utilized the moment that the white people laid their eyes off them to jump off the ship into the ocean.

Equiano envied their fate because they now did not worry about their mistreatment. As the slaves preferred death over living a life of pain, it made the white people angry and flogged them unmercifully.

The white people were in need of holding slaves in order to sell and have them working; therefore, they tried to warn them to discourage them not to commit suicide or jump off the ship into the ocean.

At last, they arrived on the island of Barbadoes where they were going to be marketed and put to work with many other African slaves. It was an island where Equiano could not believe his surroundings. There were African slaves that spoke many other different languages. Another surprising thing Equiano saw was horseback riding which was unusual.

With this article, the reader can comprehend how difficult it was to serve different masters and not being able to know when they were going to be sold again. With the detailed situations of hiding in the bushes to suffocating in an overcrowded deck, it gave the reader a sense of desperation.

Probably few people knew the exact history of slave ship. The slave ship genre used by authors is usually written to go back to the history and give readers in the present a picture of past events.

My views about this article are that Equiano had suffered as much as other slaves. The horrors of being a slave are more than what a writer can explain. Being in the actual situation is catastrophic.Slave ship, the event that took place in history, is an event that marked the deaths of millions of innocent people.

Innocent people were separated from their families just to work for other people who they did not even know. Indeed, such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my own country.

Raped at will, tortured with white-hot forks, they were thrown to the sharks if death ended their agony. A new book reveals the true horror of life on a slave ship.

Free Essay: “The Horrors of a Slave Ship,” describes in detail, the tragic experiences of Olaudah Equiano as a captive slave. Equiano suffered many sleepless.

The Horrors of a Slave Ship, is first person point of view account of the capturing of Olaudah Equiano. He tells the story of how he was captured from his home while his parents were away to be used as a slave.

Free Essay: Jill Knierim The Horrors of a Slave Ship History Villarreal Due Date: 3/8/13 The article, The Horrors of a Slave Ship, is first person point.