The Life of Olaudah Equiano: Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis

Equiano wondered if this, a new slavery, might be God’s punishment for his sins. He recalled swearing rashly at one point, berating himself for his weakness, and asking God to forgive him. After weeping and grieving for a time, he grew calmer, thinking this was God’s way to teach him wisdom and resignation.

While the ship was anchored at Portsmouth, Equiano tried any way he could to make his way back to shore; once he even paid someone to fetch him a boat, but the man left with the money and never returned. Some of his old shipmates did come to see him off at Portsmouth, bringing him oranges and other tokens. On the 30th of December, when they set sail, Equiano was devastated at his prisoner status, and he reproached his fate, wishing he’d never been born. Here, Equiano intrudes on the narrative to reproduce a poem, “The Dying Negro,” originally published in 1773. Then he recalls that, once he grew calm, he renewed his desire to come to terms with his fate.

In February they arrived in Montserrat, where Equiano grew horrified at the sight of this land of slavery, which reminded him of his former bondage. He was made to help unload the ship, and two of the sailors robbed him of all his money and ran away. Now used to England’s weather, Equiano suffered in the West-Indian heat and in the violent surf.

One day Doran sent for Equiano, who arrived to find Doran along with a Quaker merchant, Mr. Robert King. Doran said he’d like to keep Equiano if he were to stay in the West Indies, but he couldn’t take Equiano to London, for surely he’d run away. In tears, Equiano begged him to be taken to England, but Doran told Equiano that he’d found the best master on the island. Mr. King said he’d bought Equiano on account of his good behavior, and was heading back home to Philadelphia, where he would enroll Equiano in school. Equiano left the ship, which sailed the next day, leaving him grieving. But he soon found that Mr. King was indeed kind and charitable, treating his slaves well rather than beating them.

Mr. King was a merchant responsible for a number of ships transporting rum, sugar, and other goods between the West Indies and Philadelphia. Because Equiano was well-trained as a seaman, he was given 10-15 pence per day to live on. The other slaves were typically given 6-9 pence and they were often lent out to other plantation owners, who would at times beat them when they asked to be paid.

Equiano knew a countryman here who was so frugal and saved so much money that he had a white man, unbeknownst to his master, buy him a boat. One day, when the governor needed a boat for a personal task, he seized the man’s boat and wouldn’t pay him anything. Upon complaining to his master, the slave was berated. Equiano only felt some vindication when he learned that the governor died in the King’s Bench in England, not long afterward, in poverty.

Mr. King, though, often tried to intercede and prevent slaves from being whipped. Once Equiano was let out to work on a ship, whose captain refused to feed him: Mr. King found out and removed Equiano from the position. King would often send Equiano on errands to different plantations, where he saw first-hand how cruelly many of the slaves were mistreated; he felt grateful then for the relative kindness of his master. Equiano argues that the West Indies provide proof of black men’s skills in a number of complex employments, from masonry to fishing to carpentry—if black people are really so ignorant and useless, he asks, why use them as slave labor at all? These inconsistencies riddle the arguments against abolition, he argues.

Equiano often witnessed cruelties committed against slaves in the West Indies, as well as on board Mr. King’s ships, but he remained powerless to do anything. White men would rape female slaves, some even less than ten years old, and in Montserrat a black man was staked to the ground and had his ears cut off, bit by bit, because he was connected to a white woman, a prostitute.

One man told Equiano that he had sold 41,000 negroes and had once cut off a slave’s leg for running away. Equiano asked how he, as a Christian, could answer to God, and the man said this was mere policy, not religion. Another black man was half hanged and then burnt for trying to poison a vicious overseer. Equiano exclaims that the wretched are treated like brutes, pregnant women are refused care, and when they’re finally given over to despair, they are murdered.

Equiano adds that he did know more benevolent slave owners in the West Indies who kept their slaves looking healthy and who didn’t overwork them or treat them cruelly. Equiano himself would go on to manage such an estate, where the slaves were cheerful and healthy. For the opposite cases, he argues, it’s no wonder that 20,000 new slaves are needed every year to fill the places of the dead. In Barbados, home to 80,000 slaves, 1,000 die every year, requiring continual shipments of new slaves from Africa..

In Montserrat Equiano knew a black man who managed to escape by hiding aboard a ship bound for London, but he was discovered and delivered back to his master, who pinned him to the ground and then dropped sealing wax all over his back. On islands like St. Kitt’s, it was common for slaves to be branded with their master’s initials and have their necks hung with heavy iron hooks. It’s not surprising, then, that such treatment drove so many slaves to despair and suicide.

Equiano relates that exhausted field slaves would try to steal a few moments of rest while gathering grasses to bring to market to sell; white people would sometimes take the grass from them at market without paying. He also many of them treat female slaves in particular violently (though Equiano doesn’t go into details about whether this was sexual or other violence). He asks how one can expect God’s judgment not to be brought down on the islands, by a God who insists on the sacred duties to the poor, blind, captive, and broken-hearted. Once, a man bought some pigs and chickens from Equiano aboard their ship, and then returned a day later to demand his money back. When Equiano refused, he swore he’d kill Equiano and take his money. The man was about to strike when a British seaman, not “debauched” by the West Indian climate, stepped in to prevent the assault.

Equiano quotes an act of the Assembly of Barbados, stating that if a black person, having been punished for escape or crime against his master, is wounded or killed, no fine shall be paid; but if anyone kills a black man of his own will, he must pay 15 pounds sterling. Equiano condemns this act as unjust and barbarous, worse than the customs and morality of a Hottentot.

Equiano also relates an account, told to him by an abolitionist, of a French planter the abolitionist knew in Martinique. The planter showed the abolitionist many biracial people laboring away in his fields, and announced that they were all his children. These lives are worth no more than fifteen pounds sterling, Equiano writes, arguing that the slave trade is only made possible by breaking down virtue and burying all sentiments. Equiano’s own heart has often been seized by witnessing violent, painful separations of husbands from wives or children from their parents, none of whom will ever see each other again.

Once, a Creole man, who worked as a servant in Montserrat, told Equiano that his sole leisure was to go fishing, but that his employer always took the fish away. In a fair world, his employer would be the person he’d appeal to for justice: but in his situation, he could only appeal to God. Equiano encouraged him in this, saying that there was no possibility of retribution on earth, so he should seek it in heaven.

Equiano argues that cruel treatment was not confined to a few places, but was common across the world. He can’t imagine that slave traders are born worse than others: it must be the pursuit of slavery itself that corrupts them. This practice violates equality, mankind’s first natural right, by giving one man mastery over another. In enslaving men, Equiano states, one deprives them of their virtue and forces them to live in a state of war. Owners claim that the slaves aren’t faithful, just as they subjugate them cruelly and then argue that they’re incapable of learning. Such arguments are shameful for men of reason. If slaves were only treated as men, there would be no cause to fear rebellion; they would be faithful, intelligent, and peaceful.