Olaudah Equiano and the Middle Passage
"This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, which now became insupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs [toilets] into which the children often fell and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women and the groans of the dying rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable."--Olaudah Equiano, from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African (London, 1789; Cited by American Abolitionist ) . One of the earliest first-hand accounts of slavery and the Middle Passage, Olaudah Equiano's Narrative has been credited by Dr. Gates, et al. with forming the 'prototype' of the traditional slave narrative. Equiano's project was intrepid and groundbreaking not simply because it was one of the earliest records of chattle slavery in the New World, but because it is among the first to counter the popular concept that the Bible justif...