Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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 Englishcarried 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 Negros Memorial, or, Abolitionists Catechism (London:
Hatchard and Co., and J. and A. Arch, 1825), 12027 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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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 uncles 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 uncles
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 mans 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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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 Cugoanos 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 Cugoanos writing reveal about the nature of his
eventual education? about his intended audience?
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Human Resource Management
Information Systems
Law
Literature
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Nursing
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Reading
Science
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NarrativeoftheEnslavementofaNativeofAfrica1787OTTOBAHCUGOANO.pdf
Home>History homework help>American history homework help>Report.
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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 Englishcarried 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 Negros Memorial, or, Abolitionists Catechism (London:
Hatchard and Co., and J. and A. Arch, 1825), 12027 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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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 uncles 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 uncles
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 mans 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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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
????/?/?Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa (1787) OTTOBAH CUGOANO? ?:?? ?
https://ncia.wwnorton.com/ebooks/epub/givemeliberty6brosu/EPUB/content/insert-chapter5.xhtml?0/?? ? ?? ?
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 Cugoanos 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 Cugoanos writing reveal about the nature of his
eventual education? about his intended audience?
Applied Sciences
Architecture and Design
Biology
Business & Finance
Chemistry
Computer Science
Geography
Geology
Education
Engineering
English
Environmental science
Spanish
Government
History
Human Resource Management
Information Systems
Law
Literature
Mathematics
Nursing
Physics
Political Science
Psychology
Reading
Science
Social Science
Liberty University
New Hampshire University
Strayer University
University Of Phoenix
Walden University
Home
Homework Answers
Blog
Archive
Tags
Reviews
Contact
twitterfacebook
Copyright © 2022 SweetStudy.com
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