3. Read the two passages from primary sources about the Atlantic slave trade and make a historical argument based on the information they contain. Then compare how the two sources
interpret the events described. (4 points)
Passage 1: Olaudah Equiano
This passage is from the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, an African man sold into slavery.
The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave
ship... waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into
terror I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were being sounded by some of
the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were
going to kill me I was soon put down 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 with my crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat..
... I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white
men offered me eatables; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me... and laid me
across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. But still i
feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen such instances of brutal cruelty; and this is not only shown towards blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. Passage 2: Alexander Falconbridge this passage is a firsthand account of a British doctor who worked aboard slave ships. He later became an advocate for ending the slave trade. On being brought aboard ship, [the men] are immediately fastened together, two and two, by hand cuffs on their wrists and by irons riveted on their legs. They are then sent down between the decks and placed in an apartment partitioned off for that purpose. The women also are placed in a separate apartment between the decks, but without being ironed. An adjoining room on the same deck is appointed for the boys. Thus they are all placed in differently apartments.