Final Paper
Zip-a-Dee Doo-Dah: Travel is not a Cheerful Matter for Slaves
Nowadays, most people think of travel as a leisure activity, something to do in their spare time when you have money. However, this is a fairly new way of thinking of travel. Through the centuries, until about the last hundred years or so, travel has been an exhausting excursion. Sometimes, as in the experiences of the Africans kidnapped for the slave trade, it is forced upon the traveler, making the journey terrible and painful. The slaves of the autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself (henceforth Equiano) and “The Black Man’s Lament, or How to Make Sugar” (henceforth “Lament”) by Amelia Alderson Opie suffered immensely in their travels. For these characters, their travels were not something fun they could do to get away at their disposal, but rather a forced and atrocious emotional battle. Interestingly, these voyages, although horrible, had a positive effect on their lives after their forced migration and (rare) eventual freedom.
When first planning a trip, the destination must first be decided on. Families can argue for days trying to decide where they will go. Dad wants to go to Europe, Mom wants to see China, Grandma wants to take a cross-country road trip, and so on. For slaves, the choice was made for them. Some may have been curious and wanted to explore on their own, but they certainly had no desire to be forced into leaving. Most probably had no interest in leaving their homes, but were commanded by slave traders to come to the West Indies, America, or England. In “Lament”, The Negro says that the White man sends his ships to Africa “to tear us from our homes and friends” (Opie 20). These slaves clearly don’t want to leave, because it described it as “tearing”, which has a very negative connotation when used to describe taking something. They did not get to make their own decision on the matter, which makes the travel undesired. Despite this, the slaves were affected positively: through their travels, they learned some of the languages of other African tribes, as well as English. In the case of Equiano, this helped them function better in their new society, which would make life easier for them.
After the destination is selected, how they will make it there is the next step on their journey. Modern day traveling involves planes, trains, and automobiles. In the days of Equiano, slaves were transported in ships. While modern sojourners travel comfortably, recently kidnapped slaves were squeezed into tiny spaces in the hold. A “tightly packed” ship had every square inch of floor covered with horizontally-lying slaves; if the cargo were lucky, they got to travel “loosely packed”: side by side horizontally along the wall of the ship, with an empty area in the middle (Clarkson 80-81). Not only was it cramped, but dirty and unsanitary as well. The holding areas were not cleaned until after the ship arrived at port. Weeks of vomit and human excrement accumulated; because of the bacteria, diseases were rampant among the captives. Many abductees would die from these diseases, combined with general fatigue and limited movement from the journey in cramped sleeping quarters. Equiano described the hold as thus:
“I was soon put under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing.” (Equiano 39).
The holding area strengthens the souls of the slaves, if they survive, because after enduring such evil alongside such tragedy, they should be able to cope with anything. Despite having to see beastly acts done to their peers, the characters survived.
On modern leisurely travels, travel is often done with family, or at least a loved one or close friend. They laugh, they cry, they appreciate and criticize the jaunt together. Even if parts, or all, of the trip are unenjoyable, they experience them as one. For the slaves, this was not the case. Even if they were kidnapped in a group, they might be put on different parts of the ship. They might be bought and sold separately. Once they were separated from their families, they would probably never see them again. Mothers lost their children, husbands lost their wives, and siblings lost playmates. In Equiano’s case, he was slightly fortunate, but only slightly. He was separated from his sister shortly after coming to the West. After months of not seeing her, they were finally reunited, and thought they would never be divided again (Equiano 35). They slept that night together with their master, and all seemed well; the next day, however, she was ripped away from him again, and this time, he never saw her again (Equiano 36). This second round of separation made the journey and the detachment from one another even harder. The slaves of “Lament” had similarly painful experiences. “From parents, brethren’s fond embrace; / From tender wife, and child” (Opie lines 21-22) they were taken, never to meet again. Despite all the agony of losing their loved ones, the struggle helped to empower the slaves. Just as the dangerous conditions on the ships made them stronger physically, the formidable emotional predicaments strengthened them emotionally.
On many modern trips, there might be sightseeing and enjoying the adventure of seeing a new place. Sometimes, there are unpleasant moments, but the overall journey tends to be fun and relaxing. Over the weeks of the slaves’ sojourn, however, the captives have more to bear than just the stink of rotting flesh, broken-down human waste, and stale body odor; they also have to deal with the brutality of the transporters, who have no feelings whatsoever about the hostages. The dead slaves are even envied by those who live: “ Oh! Happy those, who . . . / Die from their prison’s putrid breath! / Since they escape from White man’s pow’r, / From toils and stripes, and lingering death” (Opie lines 25-28). In Equiano, if a slave refused his food, he was whipped for being insolent (Equiano 39). If he tried to jump overboard, he was to be severely lashed for his daring (Equiano 39). Sometimes, the beatings were so merciless, the slaves would die. The captors were so heartless, “One white man in particular I saw . . . flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that [the slave] died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they would have done a brute” (Equiano 40). Many people would crumble at this torture, and give up. However, Equiano and the slaves of “Lament” persevered; again, the physical pain helps to heighten their corporeal and emotional strength.
There are many things that modern families take for granted when they travel. They can choose where they go, how they get there, and how long the trip and stay take. They get to experience their journey with people they love. Despite this, many people do not appreciate that their “rough” trips are by far better than the migrations that slaves such as those in Equiano and “Lament” were forced to take. They had no control over the location, the mode of transportation, or the length of the trip. They were usually forced to do it with people that didn’t even speak their language and were often separated from their families permanently.
Despite all this, they took the hardships they had to bear and used them to improve their circumstances, or at least their outlook on life. Even when modern families have awful traveling experiences, they take nothing from the experience. They don’t learn how to improve interaction with each other or which places are better to go, so their next trip can be more exciting. They draw nothing from it. On the other hand, slaves that had truly the worst travel experiences ever gain new perspectives on life from their horrendous experiences rather than complain. So the next time you think your family vacation is the worst trip ever, think about the slaves whose only choices were to go on these dreadful journeys or be killed. Maybe then you will at least be appreciative of having to share a bed with your little brother.
Works Cited
Clarkson, Thomas. “Slave Ship: Loose Packing” British Literature 1780-1830. Comp. Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace College, 1996. 80. Print.
Clarkson, Thomas. “Slave Ship: Tight Packing” British Literature 1780-1830. Comp. Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace College, 1996. 81. Print.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself. Ed. Werner Sollors. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001. Print.
Opie, Amelia Alderson. “The Black Man’s Lament” British Literature 1780-1830. Comp. Anne K. Mellor and Richard E. Matlak. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt Brace College, 1996. 82-84. Print.
