Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Book Report

Could you imagine being kidnapped and sold into slavery? In the 1500s during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade being kidnapped and sold as a slave was a common occurrence in Africa. Throughout this period, Europeans would come to Africa in search of a source of labor, slaves, to send to work on their plantations. In exchange for slaves, African people would receive manufactured goods from the Europeans. The process of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was a maniac and unsafe affair. Nevertheless, as the demand for slaves grew for the Europeans, African chiefs would organize raids to take people from other societies and frequently launch wars to capture victims for slave trade. People taken right out of their homes, fields, and villages; people’s

There are three main points that stood out to me which include; the destructiveness of slave trade, identity, and freedom and liberation. The point that shows throughout the entire book is the destructiveness of slave trade, Equiano uses his accounts to portray some of the horrific events. His horrific accounts start when he and his sister were taken from his family and sold into slavery. Equiano starts to question why slavery is a thing and how people could be so cruel to people that don’t even know. He states “Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.” Toward the middle of the book Equiano had been so sick and low and was not able to eat. Equiano states “two of the white men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely.” Most days Equiano didn’t want to even be alive because of these awful events but it was worse for him when they took is identity

This wasn’t just a problem for Equiano, it was a problem for others too. The first example seen in the text, Equiano states “while I was on board this ship, my captain and master named me Gustavus Vassa.” This was when he realized he was property, he had no control over his movements, and he didn’t even have control of his name. Once Equiano became a freeman he went out on a search to find who he really was through religion and a real sense of himself.

Finally, freedom and liberation the point that came in towards the end of this novel when Equiano became a free man. Equiano becomes a free man when Robert King allows him to buy his freedom. This completely changed Equiano, from being a slave into being a man. Equiano learns that he is in control of his life, he starts to make his own decisions. Upon being a freeman Equiano learned to read and write; reading allowed Equiano to open up a new world of knowledge, writing allowed him to write letters to influence the freedom of slaves. Being free gave Equiano’s life new