An Interpretation of “The Middle Passage”

1. Typically the actions of Europeans engaging in the slave trade are viewed as cruel for the
sake of being cruel. In reading the document do you notice any other motivations for the
cruelty of slave drivers?
2. Equiano notes that, “… I found some black people about me, who I believe were some of
those who brought me on board, and had been receiving their pay…” What may this
reveal about the nature of the slave trade and/or challenge how you thought it was carried
out?

The document that I chose to interpret is titled “The Middle Passage,” and it was written by
Olaudah Equiano. This source is from an autobiography. The author is describing the dreadful
treatment upon a boat while he and other soon to be slaves were being transported from Africa
and the New World, more specifically they are being transported to British colonies on
Barbados. The author references how he was treated personally, how the slaves on board were
treated as a whole, in addition to the experiences of other individual slaves on board. The author
is writing more of a journal describing his experience for everyone to see and ponder rather than
identifying a specifically intended argument. The source was designed for public consumption as
Equiano wanted to get the word out there about what the treatment was like upon these boats,
however the majority of the population was for slavery and believed that the Africans were less
than them which resulted in having a large population that wouldn’t take any interest in reading
what he has published. In my opinion, the author wrote this in order to both document his trip in
addition to attempting to present valid points against slavery and the treatment that slaves
received. The author is trying to share all of the negative aspects of the slave trade to bring
attention to it, even though the likelihood of anyone reading it at the time was slim to none.
The document contains both facts in addition to some opinions of Equiano. This is what
you would expect in this type of document as someone who is writing about all their negative
experiences with their captors would have extreme negative opinions regarding them. From this
document alone, we don’t learn much about the author; however, the original source (being his
autobiography) provides a much deeper insight into the author’s life. Even with not knowing
much about the author of this document I still believe that it is a credible and trustworthy source
due to its similarity to other reports from slaves and servants at the time in addition to the fact
that the people who were enslaved would have no reason or motivation to exaggerate or bend
their stories as their life (in my opinion) is as bad as it could get. 1. This source provides a very
similar opinion that the Europeans were doing this just to be cruel, however according to John
Green some other sources of motivation to enslave the Africans comes from the thought that
slavery is a necessary evil for the growth of a new nation, slaves benefited from slavery (which is
obviously not correct), and just pure racism (John Green Video: Slavery U.S. History). This
source is very valuable as it provides us with insight into the horrible nature of the transportation
process of slaves. The views of this document align well with other documents from this time
period (another reason that adds to the credibility of the document). This document provides a lot
of the same information as other similar documents however it has some additions and unique
views from the author that make it a far more unique document than the typical ones you would
read. 2. One of the new additions is that Equiano saw some of the workers who were bringing
him on board the ship now downstairs and in chains with him, which is astonishing. I knew that
slaves were sometimes used as overseers on the fields, but I had no idea that they had any part in
the capture of other slaves. Overall this is an essential document that provides critical insight into
the horrible experience of being upon a slave transportation boat from Africa to the New World.