Fluent Essays

Answering the five question after reading the article. Then discuss what you consider its historical significance within the context of its general period in American history. ٢٠٢١/٩/٦Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO، ٩:٤٩ م https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtmlص0/حة ١ من ٥ I ✯ O T T OB A H C U G O A N O Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) From the fifteenth century through the nineteenth, Europeans— most significantly the Dutch and the English—carried an estimated 10 to 12 million Africans across the Atlantic Ocean in the largest forced migration in world history. The harrowing experience aboard the slave ships was referred to as the “Middle Passage,” so called because it was the second of a three-part journey: ships would carry gold and European manufactured goods to trade to Africans for slaves; then, laden with men, women, and children, the ships headed westward across the Atlantic; having deposited their “cargo” in the Americas, the ships would return to Europe carrying American agricultural products such as sugar, rice, and tobacco. Of the millions of people forced to endure the experience of enslavement and the Middle Passage, only a very few left behind firsthand accounts. One of them was Ottobah Cugoano (ca. 1757–?), an African born in present-day Ghana who was captured and enslaved at the age of thirteen. Surviving the Middle Passage, Cugoano experienced the brutal working conditions on a sugar plantation on the Caribbean island of Grenada. Taken to England by his master in 1772, Cugoano taught himself to read and write, converted to Christianity, and took the name John Stuart. After his emancipation, he spent much of the next two decades fighting for the abolition of slavery. His story, published as Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species, first appeared in 1787. Four years later, in 1791, Cugoano published another edition of his work. After this, Cugoano, like most of the untold millions of other Africans ensnared in the international slave trade, disappears from the historical record. From The Negro’s Memorial, or, Abolitionist’s Catechism (London: Hatchard and Co., and J. and A. Arch, 1825), 120–27 of appendix. was early snatched away from my native country, with about eighteen or twenty more boys and girls, as we were playing in a field. We lived but a few days’ journey from the coast where we were kidnapped, and as we were decoyed and drove along, we were soon conducted to a factory, and from thence, in the ٢٠٢١/٩/٦Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO، ٩:٤٩ م https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtmlص0/حة ٢ من ٥ fashionable way of traffic, consigned to Grenada. Perhaps it may not be amiss to give a few remarks, as some account of myself, in this transposition of captivity. I was born in the city of Agimaque, on the coast of Fantyn:1 my father was a companion to the chief in that part of the country of Fantee, and when the old king died I was left in his house with his family; soon after I was sent for by his nephew, Ambro Accasa, who succeeded the old king in the chiefdom of that part of Fantee, known by the name of Agimaque and Assinee. I lived with his children, enjoying peace and tranquillity, about twenty moons, which, according to their way of reckoning time, is two years. I was sent for to visit an uncle, who lived at a considerable distance from Agimaque. The first day after we set out we arrived at Assinee, and the third day at my uncle’s habitation, where I lived about three months, and was then thinking of returning to my father and young companion at Agimaque; but by this time I had got well acquainted with some of the children of my uncle’s hundreds of relations, and we were some days too venturesome in going into the woods to gather fruit and catch birds and such amusements as pleased us. One day . . . we went into the woods, as usual but we had not been above two hours, before our troubles began, when several great ruffians came upon us suddenly, and said we had committed a fault against their lord, and we must go and answer for it ourselves before him. Some of us attempted, in vain, to run away, but pistols and cutlasses were soon introduced, threatening, that if we offered to stir, we should all lie dead on the spot. One of them pretended to be more friendly than the rest, and said that he would speak to their lord to get us clear, and desired that we should follow him; we were then immediately divided into different parties, and drove after him. * * * I soon became very uneasy, not knowing what to do, and refused to eat or drink, for whole days together, till the man of the house told me that he would do all in his power to get me back to my uncle; then I eat a little fruit with him, and had some thoughts that I should be sought after, as I would be then missing at home about five or six days. I inquired every day if the men had come back, and for the rest of my companions, but could get no answer of any satisfaction. I was kept about six days at this man’s house, and in the evening there was another man came, and talked with him a good while and I heard the one say to the other he must go, and the other said, the sooner the better; that man came out and told me that he knew my relations at Agimaque, and that we must ٢٠٢١/٩/٦Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO، ٩:٤٩ م https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtmlص0/حة ٣ من ٥ set out to-morrow morning, and he would convey me there. Accordingly we set out next day, and travelled till dark, when we came to a place where we had some supper and slept. He carried a large bag, with some gold dust, which he said he had to buy some goods at the sea-side to take with him to Agimaque. Next day we travelled on, and in the evening came to a town, where I saw several white people, which made me afraid that they would eat me, according to our notion, as children, in the inland parts of the country. This made me rest very uneasy all the night, and next morning I had some victuals brought, desiring me to eat and make haste, as my guide and kidnapper told me that he had to go to the castle with some company that were going there, as he had told me before, to get some goods. After I was ordered out, the horrors I soon saw and felt, cannot be well described; I saw many of my miserable countrymen chained two and two, some handcuffed, and some with their hands tied behind. We were conducted along by a guard, and when we arrived at the castle, I asked my guide what I was brought there for, he told me to learn the ways of the browfow, that is, the white-faced people. I saw him take a gun, a piece of cloth, and some lead for me, and then he told me that he must now leave me there, and went off. This made me cry bitterly, but I was soon conducted to a prison, for three days, where I heard the groans and cries of many, and saw some of my fellow- captives. But when a vessel arrived to conduct us away to the ship, it was a most horrible scene; there was nothing to be heard but the rattling of chains, smacking of whips, and the groans and cries of our fellow-men. Some would not stir from the ground, when they were lashed and beat in the most horrible manner. I have forgot the name of this infernal fort; but we were taken in the ship that came for us, to another that was ready to sail from Cape Coast.2 When we were put into the ship, we saw several black merchants coming on board, but we were all drove into our holes, and not suffered to speak to any of them. In this situation we continued several days in sight of our native land; but I could find no good person to give any information of my situation to Accasa at Agimaque. And when we found ourselves at last taken away, death was more preferable than life; and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we might burn and blowup the ship, and to perish all together in the flames: but we were betrayed by one of our own countrywomen, who slept with some of the headmen of the ship, for it was common for the dirty filthy sailors to take the African women and lie upon their bodies; but the men were chained and pent up in holes. It was the women and boys which ٢٠٢١/٩/٦Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO، ٩:٤٩ م https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtmlص0/حة ٤ من ٥ were to burn the ship, with the approbation and groans of the rest; though that was prevented, the discovery was likewise a cruel bloody scene. But it would be needless to give a description of all the horrible scenes which we saw, and the base treatment which we met with in this dreadful captive situation, as the similar cases of thousands, which suffer by this infernal traffic, are well known. Let it suffice to say that I was thus lost to my dear indulgent parents and relations, and they to me. All my help was cries and tears, and these could not avail, nor suffered long, till one succeeding woe and dread swelled up another. Brought from a state of innocence and freedom, and, in a barbarous and cruel manner, conveyed to a state of horror and slavery, this abandoned situation may be easier conceived than described. From the time that I was kidnapped, and conducted to a factory,3 and from thence in the brutish, base, but fashionable way of traffic, consigned to Grenada, the grievous thoughts which I then felt, still pant in my heart; though my fears and tears have long since subsided. And yet it is still grievous to think that thousands more have suffered in similar and greater distress, under the hands of barbarous robbers, and merciless task-masters; and that many, even now, are suffering in all the extreme bitterness of grief and woe, that no language can describe . . . Being in this dreadful captivity and horrible slavery, without any hope of deliverance, for about eight or nine months, beholding the most dreadful scenes of misery and cruelty, and seeing my miserable companions often cruelly lashed, and, as it were, cut to pieces, for the most trifling faults; this made me often tremble and weep, but I escaped better than many of them. For eating a piece of sugar-cane, some were cruelly lashed, or struck over the face, to knock their teeth out. Some of the stouter ones, I suppose, often reproved, and grown hardened and stupid with many cruel beatings and lashings, or perhaps faint and pressed with hunger and hard labour, were often committing trespasses of this kind, and when detected, they met with exemplary punishment. Some told me they had their teeth pulled out, to deter others, and to prevent them from eating any cane in future. Thus seeing my miserable companions and countrymen in this pitiful, distressed, and horrible situation, with all the brutish baseness and barbarity attending it, could not but fill my little mind horror and Indignation. But I must own, to the shame of my own countrymen, that I was first kidnapped and betrayed by some of my own complexion, who were the first cause of my exile, and slavery; but if there were no buyers there would be no sellers. So far as I can remember, some of the Africans in my country keep slaves, which they take in war, or for debt; but those which they keep are well ٢٠٢١/٩/٦Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO، ٩:٤٩ م https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtmlص0/حة ٥ من ٥ fed, and good care taken of them, and treated well; and as to their clothing, they differ according to the custom of the country. But I may safely say, that all the poverty and misery that any of the inhabitants of Africa meet with among themselves, is far inferior to those inhospitable regions of misery which they meet with in the West-Indies, where their hard-hearted overseers have neither Regard to the laws of God, nor the life of their fellow-men. Thanks be to God, I was delivered from Grenada, and that horrid brutal slavery. A gentleman coming to England took me for his servant, and brought me away, where I soon found my situation become more agreeable. After coming to England, and seeing others write and read, I had a strong desire to learn, and getting what assistance I could, I applied myself to learn reading and writing, which soon became my recreation, pleasure, and delight; and when my master perceived that I could write some, he sent me to a proper school for that purpose to learn. Since, I have endeavoured to improve my mind in reading, and have sought to get all the intelligence I could, in my situation of life, towards the state of my brethren and countrymen in complexion, and of the miserable situation of those who are barbarously sold into captivity, and unlawfully held in slavery. Study Questions 1.  How was Cugoano enslaved? 2.  What was Cugoano’s reaction to the first sight of Europeans? What did Cugoano experience aboard the slave ship? 3.  What became of Cugoano when he landed in the New World? How was his fate different from that of the millions of other Africans who were forced into slavery? 4.  What distinctions does Cugoano make between slavery as practiced in Africa and slavery in the West Indies? 5.  What does Cugoano’s writing reveal about the nature of his eventual education? about his intended audience?