By mid-May 1763, Equiano was in deep depression and sadness. Ever since he was captured in Africa and sold to white slavers, he had been through an endless series of horrors and terrifying scenes. All along he had believed that the darkest clouds of Fate were gathering over his head, and that when he burst they would mix him with the dead. It was just at that moment, when the ship on which he was engaged was about to sail for England, that Captain Doran sent for Equiano ashore. Later, Doran’s messenger hinted to Equiano that his fate had been determined.
With fluttering steps and trembling heart came Equiano and found with the captain a Mr. Robert King, a Quaker, and the first merchant there. Then the captain told Equiano that his former master, Pascal, had sent him there to be sold; but eager for him to get Equiano the best master he could, because he told him that he had found him a very servant boy. Doran then confirmed his endorsement of the teacher’s approval of Equiano’s conduct. If he had stayed in the West Indies, he went on, he would have been glad to keep it to himself; but only he could not venture to take him to London, fearing that if he did, he would abandon him. Hearing that, Equiano burst into tears, which led to him being taken to England with him, but all to no avail. The Captain calmed him down, assuring him that he had secured him the best master in the whole island, with whom he would be as content as if he were in England. He even bragged that even though he could have sold it for much more money elsewhere and to someone else, he had to follow instructions.
Mr. King in response said that he had bought Equiano because of his good character. because he had not the slightest doubt of his good behavior. In addition, he assured that Equiano should be very well with him. He said that he lived in Philadelphia, where he was headed and where he promised to put him in school and hire him as a clerk in his business, since he had learned that Equiano understood some of the rules of arithmetic. This conversation relieved. Equiano’s mind a bit. Thus he left them considerably calmer than before. He was very grateful to Captain Doran and his former teacher for the remarkable character they had developed in him and which he would later discover would be of infinite service to him.
Equiano said goodbye to all his companions the next day when the ship sailed. He stood at the water’s edge watching her with a very longing and aching heart, following her with tear-choked eyes until she was completely out of sight. He was so weighed down by the grievance that he could not hold his head up for many months. So intense was her grievance that were it not for her new master’s kindness towards him, she believed she should have died.
Equiano soon discovered that his master fully deserved the good character Captain Doran had seen in him; because he had a very kind disposition and temperament, and he was very charitable and humane. If any of his slaves misbehaved instead of beating or mistreating them, he would calmly dispense with their services. This made them afraid to disobey him; and as he treated his slaves better than anyone else on the island, he was better and more faithfully served. Equiano thus made an effort to compose himself; and with strength, though penniless, he was determined to meet whatever fate he had decreed for him.
Mr. King, while asking him what he could do, at the same time assured him that he had no intention of treating him like a common slave. Equiano then told him that he knew something about seamanship, that he knew how to shave and comb his hair as well as refine wine. He added that he knew how to write and that he understood arithmetic quite well. Mr. King then called one of his employees to teach him how to measure the one thing Equiano revealed he knew nothing about.
Mr. King, who traded in all kinds of merchandise, to service this huge business, kept up to six employees. He loaded many ships in a year bound for Philadelphia, where he was born, and where he was well connected with a great merchant house. He had many ships of different sizes, which went around the island; and in other places collecting rum, sugar and other goods. Equiano knew how to pull and handle those boats very well; and this, which was the first task entrusted to him, during the sugar seasons became his constant employment.
Rowing the boat, and slaving at the oars, up to sixteen hours in the day; he brought in ten to fifteen pence sterling a day to live on, which was considerably more than other slaves who worked with him and belonged to other gentlemen on the island were allowed: they never had more than nine pence a day and rarely more. sixpence from their masters, though they earned them three or four pounds through the then common practice in the West Indies for men who had no plantations to buy slaves to give to planters and merchants at so much a piece. by day, and they gave their slaves very little allowance for subsistence. Olaudah Equiano describes with great compassion the miserable conditions in which these exploited men were left.
Equiano’s master used to give his owners two and a half guineas a day, and found that the poor boys needed good food to eat, because he thought their owners did not feed them well enough to equip them well for the work they were doing. The slaves were very pleased with this gesture and, knowing that Equiano’s master was a man of feeling and compassion, they were always happy to work for him in preference to other knights; some of whom, after they had been paid for the work of these poor people, would not give them their fair share of the allowance.
Many times has Equiano seen whipping such unfortunates for praying for their country; and often being severely flogged by their owners if their daily or weekly money was not brought to them on time even though the poor creatures were forced to attend to the gentlemen they had worked for sometimes for more than half the day before. be able to receive your payment. ; and this generally on Sundays, when they needed time for themselves.
In particular, Equiano claimed to know a countryman of his who once did not bring the weekly money he earned directly. Although he took it the same day to his master, he was staked to the ground for this apparent negligence. He was about to receive a hundred lashes, when a gentleman intervened and begged him to remove fifty. This poor man was very industrious; and, by his frugality, he had saved much money working on board, so much so that he accumulated enough money with which he got a white man to buy him a boat, without his own employer knowing it. Time after this fortune, the governor required a ship to transport his sugar from different points of the island. Knowing this boat belonged to a black man, he seized it using it as his own, and didn’t pay the owner a dime. So the man went to his master and complained to him, but the only satisfaction he got was being sentenced very severely and asked how dare any of his blacks have a boat.
If the justly deserved ruin of the governor’s fortune might be some gratification to the poor man he had thus robbed, he was not without consolation. Extortion and looting are bad providers. Some time after this, the governor died on the King’s Bench in England, in great poverty. Having favored the last war against this poor black man, he found some means of escaping from his Christian master. He came to England; where Equiano saw him several times afterwards. Such treatment often drives these wretches to despair, leading them to flee from their masters even at the risk of their own lives. Many of them, unable to receive the pay they have legally earned and fearing to be flogged, as usual, if they return home without it, flee wherever they can for shelter, and a reward is often offered for bringing them back dead. or alive. According to Equiano, his master used to sometimes, in these cases, agree with his owners, and settle himself with them; thus preventing many of them from being registered.
