The middle passage is seen as one of the most inhumane events that has ever happened in history. From the abduction of the African slaves to the point where they are forced to do hard labor is enough liability to abolish the slave trade. As stated by Olaudah Equiano, when he cried the individuals who snatched the Africans, “put [him] into a large sack,”[1] this particular part is interesting because do they not realize that he is a child? How cruel can someone be to stuff someone into a bag but for it to be a child is just plain vulgar. The slave trade should have been abolished just on the way the Africans were treated before they became “actual” slaves. To add to the truculent acts that were brought upon the Africans during the middle passage, were the living conditions they endured while on the ship. Equiano states that people were packed so tight into a space that it became hard to breath and that the smell was an awful odor.[2] The situation that he and the other Africans were in was no way to live, and by that fact of what they were put through should have abolished the slave trade. Looking at it from the European perspective, it was about economics, but if they were going to load the Africans in that manner it should have been livable and sanitary. The treatment and the living conditions while on the middle passage serves as enough to act against the slave trade and abolish it.
In addition in a scene of the narrative it is ironic how the Europeans thought the Africans were savage and barbaric, but the things that did and said were worse than what the Africans displayed. For example, Equiano emphasized how if there was not enough food to last, then they would kill him to eat.[3] How can the Europeans say that the Africans were savage, when they would kill and eat a human being to satisfy their hunger?
[1] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African ( North Carolina: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004), 49
[2] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African ( North Carolina: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004), 79
[3] Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African ( North Carolina: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2004), 99
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