HISTORY SCRIPT:
Amna: Interviewer: Olaudah Equiano was born in Eboe and him and his sister
were kidnapped in childhood and sold to slave traders. After being brought to
the coast of Africa, they experienced the horrible journey of the Middle
Passage to the West Indies.
So, tell me Mr. Equiano, how were your feelings about the journey?
Khiana: Equiano: It was a horrible journey, absolutely horrible. I was so
disgusted by some of the things that happened, sometimes feeling despair,
for how much more time was left in these dreadful 2 to 3 months journey. I
additionally felt a longing to go back to the life that was stolen from me
when me and my sister were kidnapped.
Amna: Interviewer: What were the slaves treated like?
Khiana: Equiano: The way slaves were treated, it was appalling and utterly
horrendous. The food supply was limited so when we were given food it was
usually just watered down gruel: there were no plates or cutlery, we had to
eat with our hands.
The slave boat owners would punish the enslaved Africans by whipping them
with a cat-o-nine tail and doing forced exercises to make sure the slaves
would still be alive. They were moreover always kept chained up.
Amna: Interviewer: How did the conditions affect your mental health?
Khiana: Equiano: The living conditions on the ships were awful. Enslaved
Africans would be separated into women, children and men. When storms hit
the boat, they would topple one on top of the other and many at the bottom
would suffocate and therefore, it would be a cause death. The men lay in
rows, bound shoulder to shoulder.
If an enslaved African was ill, they would throw that person overboard
because they would get money for that slave if someone drowned, not if
they died of illness. The unsanitary conditions such as there being no toilets
and people throwing up were a big cause of diseases such as dysentery,
smallpox and malaria.
This affected my mental health greatly as watching those people thrown
overboard scared me because falling ill was not in my hands, but I knew that
if I did, I would be one of those people.
Some slaves lost their minds over the course of that journey but thankfully, I
was one of the few that stayed devasted but held on to the hope that one
day I would be free again.
Amna: Interviewer: Wow, all this that you are describing Mr. Equiano sickens
me deeply. So please explain to me what helped you cope with all the
conditions on the ship?
Khiana: Equiano: I think the biggest thing that helped me cope with all the
conditions on the ship was knowing that I was going to fight back and it
helped me because the thought encouraged me that I will get through all of
this and I will help all the people that have been slaves before and come as
slaves after me. I will help them to freedom.
Amna: Interviewer: Thank you for sharing that thought with us Mr. Equiano.
My last question to you, how did you feel when you got separated from
your sister?
Khiana: Equiano: In all honesty, I felt as if they had cut my heart in half. I was
always with my sister before we got kidnapped and when they tore away her
from me, it was as if my life had been shaken away.
Amna: Interviewer: Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Equiano. It is
shown how horrific the middle passage was and thank you for being brave
and reliving these experiences in today’s interview. Moving on, we now are
transitioning our interview to a famous slave trader called Sir John Hawkins
to hear an alternative side to the same problem of slavery.
So, Mr. Hawkins, what made you think slavery was alright?
Khiana: Hawkins: Most people in Europe used to think that the blacks were
inferior to the whites. Me, being a slave trader who hunted slaves, was only
doing it for the money. Also, Mr. David Humes, a very famous historian,
claimed that there was no civilized nation of any other complexion than
white. In addition, there were no laws and people thought it was in the Bible
as well, and developed the theory of eugenics that one race was superior to
another race.
Amna: Interviewer: Thank you for your opinion, Sir John Hawkins. It has
obviously been seen how awful and unfair slavery is, we are thankful such
cases no longer exist. That concludes our interview today.
Khiana and Amna: Thank you for listening.
