Olaudah Equiano Argues That He Was Trained in the Arts of Agriculture and War

Behold, God is my salvation; I volition trust and non exist
afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my
song; he also is become my salvation.
And in that shall ye say, Praise the Lord, phone call upon his
name, declare his doings among the people. Isaiah xii. two, four.

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[Entered at Stationer's Hall.]

CHAP. II.
The author'southward nascence and parentage—His being kidnapped with his sister—Their separation—Surprise at coming together once again—Are finally separated—Account of the different places and incidents the author met with till his inflow on the coast—The effect the sight of a slave ship had on him—He sails for the West Indies—Horrors of a slave ship—Arrives at Barbadoes, where the cargo is sold and dispersed.
I hope the reader will not recall I have trespassed on his patience in introducing myself to him with some account of the manners and customs of my country. They had been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression on my listen, which time could not erase, and which all the adversity and variety of fortune I have since experienced served but to rivet and record; for, whether the love of one's country be real or imaginary, or a lesson of reason, or an instinct of nature, I still look dorsum with pleasance on the get-go scenes of my life, though that pleasance has been for the most part mingled with sorrow.
I accept already acquainted the reader with the time and place of my birth. My male parent, besides many slaves, had a numerous family unit, of which vii lived to abound upwardly, including myself and a sister, who was the only daughter. As I was the youngest of the sons, I became, of course, the greatest favourite with my mother, and was always with her; and she used to accept item pains to course my heed. I was trained upward from my primeval years in the fine art of state of war; my daily exercise was shooting and throwing javelins; and my female parent adorned me with emblems, later the manner of our greatest warriors. In this style I grew upwardly till I was turned the age of eleven, when an end was put to my happiness in the following manner:—Generally when the grown people in the neighbourhood were gone far in the fields to labour, the children assembled together in some of the neighbours' bounds to play; and commonly some of united states of america used to become upwardly a tree to look out for whatever attacker, or kidnapper, that might come upon u.s.; for they sometimes took those opportunities of our parents' absenteeism to assail and comport off as many every bit they could seize. One twenty-four hours, as I was watching at the tiptop of a tree in our one thousand, I saw one of those people come into the grand of our next neighbor but one, to kidnap, there existence many stout young people in it. Immediately on this I gave the alarm of the rogue, and he was surrounded by the stoutest of them, who entangled him with cords, then that he could not escape till some of the grown people came and secured him. But alas! ere long it was my fate to exist thus attacked, and to be carried off, when none of the grown people were about. One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and but I and my dear sister were left to mind the house, 2 men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized united states of america both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood. Hither they tied our easily, and connected to carry united states equally far as they could, till nighttime came on, when we reached a pocket-sized house, where the robbers halted for refreshment, and spent the night. We were then unbound, but were unable to take any food; and, being quite overpowered by fatigue and grief, our merely relief was some sleep, which allayed our misfortune for a short fourth dimension. The adjacent forenoon we left the house, and continued travelling all the day. For a long time we had kept the woods, just at last we came into a road which I believed I knew. I had at present some hopes of being delivered; for we had advanced but a footling fashion before I discovered some people at a distance, on which I began to cry out for their assistance: but my cries had no other effect than to make them tie me faster and cease my mouth, and then they put me into a large sack. They also stopped my sister's mouth, and tied her hands; and in this manner we proceeded till nosotros were out of the sight of these people. When nosotros went to residual the following nighttime they offered us some victuals; but we refused information technology; and the simply condolement we had was in being in one another'south artillery all that night, and bathing each other with our tears. But alas! we were soon deprived of fifty-fifty the small comfort of weeping together. The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had even so experienced; for my sister and I were and so separated, while nosotros lay clasped in each other'south arms. It was in vain that we besought them not to part u.s.; she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and grieved continually; and for several days I did not eat any thing but what they forced into my oral cavity. At length, after many days travelling, during which I had frequently inverse masters, I got into the hands of a chieftain, in a very pleasant country. This man had 2 wives and some children, and they all used me extremely well, and did all they could to comfort me; especially the beginning wife, who was something like my mother. Although I was a bang-up many days journey from my father's house, even so these people spoke exactly the same language with us. This first master of mine, as I may call him, was a smith, and my principal employment was working his bellows, which were the same kind equally I had seen in my vicinity. They were in some respects non dissimilar the stoves here in gentlemen's kitchens; and were covered over with leather; and in the middle of that leather a stick was fixed, and a person stood up, and worked it, in the same manner every bit is done to pump h2o out of a cask with a hand pump. I believe it was gold he worked, for it was of a lovely brilliant yellow color, and was worn by the women on their wrists and ancles. I was there I suppose nigh a calendar month, and they at last used to trust me some piddling distance from the business firm. This freedom I used in embracing every opportunity to inquire the way to my ain home: and I as well sometimes, for the aforementioned purpose, went with the maidens, in the cool of the evenings, to bring pitchers of water from the springs for the use of the house. I had also remarked where the dominicus rose in the morning, and set up in the evening, as I had travelled along; and I had observed that my father's house was towards the rise of the sun. I therefore determined to seize the offset opportunity of making my escape, and to shape my course for that quarter; for I was quite oppressed and weighed downward by grief after my mother and friends; and my love of liberty, ever great, was strengthened past the mortifying circumstance of not daring to consume with the complimentary-built-in children, although I was mostly their companion. While I was projecting my escape, one twenty-four hour period an unlucky result happened, which quite disconcerted my plan, and put an end to my hopes. I used to be sometimes employed in assisting an elderly adult female slave to cook and take care of the poultry; and one morning, while I was feeding some chickens, I happened to toss a pocket-size pebble at 1 of them, which hitting information technology on the eye and directly killed it. The old slave, having before long subsequently missed the chicken, inquired after it; and on my relating the accident (for I told her the truth, because my mother would never suffer me to tell a lie) she flew into a tearing passion, threatened that I should suffer for information technology; and, my master beingness out, she immediately went and told her mistress what I had done. This alarmed me very much, and I expected an instant flogging, which to me was uncommonly dreadful; for I had seldom been beaten at home. I therefore resolved to wing; and appropriately I ran into a thicket that was difficult by, and hid myself in the bushes. Soon afterwards my mistress and the slave returned, and, not seeing me, they searched all the firm, but non finding me, and I not making answer when they called to me, they idea I had run away, and the whole neighbourhood was raised in the pursuit of me. In that role of the country (equally in ours) the houses and villages were skirted with forest, or shrubberies, and the bushes were then thick that a man could readily conceal himself in them, so as to elude the strictest search. The neighbours connected the whole solar day looking for me, and several times many of them came within a few yards of the place where I lay hid. I then gave myself up for lost entirely, and expected every moment, when I heard a rustling among the trees, to be found out, and punished by my main: but they never discovered me, though they were often so almost that I even heard their conjectures every bit they were looking about for me; and I now learned from them, that whatsoever attempt to return home would be hopeless. Nigh of them supposed I had fled towards home; but the distance was then slap-up, and the way then intricate, that they idea I could never reach it, and that I should be lost in the woods. When I heard this I was seized with a trigger-happy panic, and abandoned myself to despair. Night too began to approach, and aggravated all my fears. I had earlier entertained hopes of getting home, and I had determined when it should be dark to make the attempt; but I was at present convinced it was fruitless, and I began to consider that, if possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those of the human kind; and that, non knowing the way, I must perish in the woods. Thus was I like the hunted deer:
—"Ev'ry leaf and ev'ry whisp'band breath
I heard frequent rustlings among the leaves; and existence pretty sure they were snakes I expected every instant to be stung by them. This increased my anguish, and the horror of my state of affairs became at present quite insupportable. I at length quitted the thicket, very faint and hungry, for I had not eaten or drank whatever thing all the 24-hour interval; and crept to my chief's kitchen, from whence I gear up out at beginning, and which was an open shed, and laid myself down in the ashes with an anxious wish for expiry to relieve me from all my pains. I was scarcely awake in the morning when the erstwhile woman slave, who was the first up, came to light the burn down, and saw me in the fire place. She was very much surprised to see me, and could scarcely believe her ain optics. She at present promised to intercede for me, and went for her main, who shortly after came, and, having slightly reprimanded me, ordered me to be taken care of, and not to be sick-treated.
Before long afterward this my master's only girl, and child by his kickoff wife, sickened and died, which affected him so much that for some time he was most frantic, and actually would accept killed himself, had he not been watched and prevented. All the same, in a pocket-size time subsequently he recovered, and I was once more sold. I was now carried to the left of the sun's rising, through many different countries, and a number of large woods. The people I was sold to used to acquit me very often, when I was tired, either on their shoulders or on their backs. I saw many user-friendly well-built sheds along the roads, at proper distances, to adjust the merchants and travellers, who lay in those buildings along with their wives, who often accompany them; and they ever go well armed.
From the fourth dimension I left my own nation I always constitute somebody that understood me till I came to the sea coast. The languages of different nations did not totally differ, nor were they so copious as those of the Europeans, particularly the English language. They were therefore hands learned; and, while I was journeying thus through Africa, I acquired two or 3 different tongues. In this manner I had been travelling for a considerable time, when one evening, to my great surprise, whom should I see brought to the house where I was but my dear sis! As presently as she saw me she gave a loud shriek, and ran into my arms—I was quite overpowered: neither of the states could speak; but, for a considerable fourth dimension, clung to each other in mutual embraces, unable to practice any matter merely weep. Our coming together affected all who saw us; and indeed I must admit, in honour of those sable destroyers of homo rights, that I never met with whatever ill handling, or saw any offered to their slaves, except tying them, when necessary, to keep them from running away. When these people knew we were brother and sis they indulged the states together; and the man, to whom I supposed we belonged, lay with the states, he in the heart, while she and I held one another by the hands across his breast all night; and thus for a while nosotros forgot our misfortunes in the joy of being together: simply fifty-fifty this small comfort was soon to have an end; for scarcely had the fatal morning appeared, when she was again torn from me for ever! I was now more than miserable, if possible, than before. The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was gone, and the wretchedness of my situation was redoubled past my anxiety later her fate, and my apprehensions lest her sufferings should be greater than mine, when I could not be with her to alleviate them. Yes, 1000 love partner of all my childish sports! k sharer of my joys and sorrows! happy should I have ever esteemed myself to encounter every misery for yous, and to procure your freedom by the sacrifice of my own. Though you were early forced from my artillery, your prototype has been always rivetted in my middle, from which neither time nor fortune have been able to remove information technology; so that, while the thoughts of your sufferings have damped my prosperity, they have mingled with adversity and increased its bitterness. To that Heaven which protects the weak from the potent, I commit the care of your innocence and virtues, if they have non already received their full advantage, and if your youth and delicacy have not long since fallen victims to the violence of the African trader, the pestilential stench of a Guinea ship, the seasoning in the European colonies, or the lash and lust of a brutal and unrelenting overseer.
I did not long remain later my sis. I was again sold, and carried through a number of places, till, after travelling a considerable time, I came to a boondocks chosen Tinmah, in the most beautiful country I have yet seen in Africa. It was extremely rich, and there were many rivulets which flowed through information technology, and supplied a large pond in the centre of the town, where the people washed. Here I first saw and tasted cocoa-basics, which I thought superior to any nuts I had ever tasted before; and the copse, which were loaded, were also interspersed amidst the houses, which had commodious shades bordering, and were in the aforementioned manner as ours, the insides beingness neatly plastered and whitewashed. Here I besides saw and tasted for the showtime time sugar-cane. Their money consisted of little white shells, the size of the finger nail. I was sold here for one hundred and lxx-two of them by a merchant who lived and brought me there. I had been virtually two or 3 days at his business firm, when a wealthy widow, a neighbour of his, came at that place one evening, and brought with her an just son, a young gentleman about my own age and size. Hither they saw me; and, having taken a fancy to me, I was bought of the merchant, and went home with them. Her house and premises were situated close to one of those rivulets I have mentioned, and were the finest I ever saw in Africa: they were very extensive, and she had a number of slaves to attend her. The next day I was washed and perfumed, and when meal-fourth dimension came I was led into the presence of my mistress, and ate and drank before her with her son. This filled me with astonishment; and I could scarce help expressing my surprise that the immature gentleman should endure me, who was bound, to swallow with him who was free; and non only so, but that he would non at whatever fourth dimension either eat or drink till I had taken offset, because I was the eldest, which was amusing to our custom. Indeed every thing here, and all their treatment of me, made me forget that I was a slave. The language of these people resembled ours so near, that we understood each other perfectly. They had also the very same community as we. There were likewise slaves daily to attend usa, while my young primary and I with other boys sported with our darts and bows and arrows, every bit I had been used to do at dwelling. In this resemblance to my erstwhile happy state I passed most two months; and I now began to think I was to be adopted into the family unit, and was beginning to be reconciled to my situation, and to forget past degrees my misfortunes, when all at once the delusion vanished; for, without the least previous knowledge, one forenoon early on, while my dear master and companion was still asleep, I was wakened out of my reverie to fresh sorrow, and hurried away even among the uncircumcised.
Thus, at the very moment I dreamed of the greatest happiness, I plant myself most miserable; and it seemed equally if fortune wished to give me this taste of joy, but to render the opposite more poignant. The alter I now experienced was as painful as information technology was sudden and unexpected. It was a modify indeed from a land of elation to a scene which is inexpressible by me, as it discovered to me an element I had never earlier beheld, and till and then had no idea of, and wherein such instances of hardship and cruelty continually occurred as I can never reflect on simply with horror.
All the nations and people I had hitherto passed through resembled our ain in their manners, customs, and language: but I came at length to a land, the inhabitants of which differed from united states of america in all those particulars. I was very much struck with this divergence, peculiarly when I came among a people who did not circumcise, and ate without washing their hands. They cooked also in iron pots, and had European cutlasses and cross bows, which were unknown to us, and fought with their fists amid themselves. Their women were non so minor equally ours, for they ate, and drank, and slept, with their men. But, to a higher place all, I was amazed to see no sacrifices or offerings among them. In some of those places the people ornamented themselves with scars, and likewise filed their teeth very sharp. They wanted sometimes to ornament me in the aforementioned style, simply I would not suffer them; hoping that I might some time be amidst a people who did not thus disfigure themselves, as I thought they did. At final I came to the banks of a big river, which was covered with canoes, in which the people appeared to live with their household utensils and provisions of all kinds. I was beyond measure astonished at this, as I had never before seen any water larger than a pond or a rivulet: and my surprise was mingled with no minor fear when I was put into one of these canoes, and we began to paddle and move along the river. We connected going on thus till night; and when we came to country, and fabricated fires on the banks, each family past themselves, some dragged their canoes on shore, others stayed and cooked in theirs, and laid in them all night. Those on the country had mats, of which they made tents, some in the shape of piffling houses: in these we slept; and afterwards the morn meal we embarked again and proceeded every bit before. I was often very much astonished to run into some of the women, as well every bit the men, jump into the water, dive to the bottom, come up upwards once more, and swim most. Thus I continued to travel, sometimes past country, sometimes by water, through unlike countries and various nations, till, at the terminate of six or 7 months after I had been kidnapped, I arrived at the sea coast. It would be tedious and uninteresting to relate all the incidents which befell me during this journey, and which I have not yet forgotten; of the various hands I passed through, and the manners and customs of all the different people amid whom I lived: I shall therefore only detect, that in all the places where I was the soil was exceedingly rich; the pomkins, eadas, plantains, yams, &c. &c. were in swell abundance, and of incredible size. There were too vast quantities of different gums, though non used for any purpose; and every where a great deal of tobacco. The cotton wool even grew quite wild; and in that location was enough of redwood. I saw no mechanics whatever in all the way, except such every bit I take mentioned. The main employment in all these countries was agriculture, and both the males and females, as with us, were brought upwards to it, and trained in the arts of war.
The first object which saluted my optics when I arrived on the coast was the ocean, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to come across if I were sound by some of the coiffure; and I was at present persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had always heard) united to confirm me in this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that, if ten thousand worlds had been my ain, I would accept freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with that of the meanest slave in my ain country. When I looked circular the ship too and saw a large furnace or copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted of my fate; and, quite overpowered with horror and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little I found some blackness people about me, who I believed were some of those who brought me on board, and had been receiving their pay; they talked to me in order to cheer me, only all in vain. I asked them if we were non to be eaten past those white men with horrible looks, red faces, and loose hair. They told me I was not; and ane of the coiffure brought me a pocket-size portion of spirituous liquor in a wine glass; simply, being agape of him, I would not take it out of his paw. One of the blacks therefore took it from him and gave information technology to me, and I took a little downwardly my palate, which, instead of reviving me, as they thought it would, threw me into the greatest consternation at the strange feeling information technology produced, having never tasted any such liquor before. Soon after this the blacks who brought me on lath went off, and left me abandoned to despair. I at present saw myself deprived of all risk of returning to my native country, or even the least glimpse of hope of gaining the shore, which I now considered as friendly; and I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind, still heightened past my ignorance of what I was to undergo.

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Source: https://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/amcdouga/Hist247/winter_2011/resources/olaudah_equiano.html

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