[The following is a firsthand account of an African American who, after being taken as a slave by neighboring Africans, was later sold to slave traders and shipped to America. This account is in regards to life on a slave ship. His name was Gustavus Vassa. He was born in Benin in 1745 and was kidnapped and made a slave when he was 11 years old. He spent four years in servitude in Africa before being sold to be shipped overseas.]
Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heightened my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites. One day they had taken a number of fishes; and when they had killed and satisfied themselves with as many as they thought fit, to our astonishment who were on the deck rather than give any of them to us to eat, as we expected, they tossed the remaining fish into the sea again, although we begged and prayed for some as well as we could, but in vain. Some of my countrymen, being pressed by hunger, took an opportunity when they thought no one saw them, of trying to get a little privately; but they were discovered, and the attempt procured them some very severe floggings.
Source:
Stephens, John Richard. “Victims of History.” Weird History 101: Tales of Intrigue, Mayhem, and Outrageous Behavior. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006. 157. Print.
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