Immigrants in Chains – Slave Narratives
Immigrants in Chains – Slave Narratives
Kathryn Jones
North Reading Middle School
February 13, 2009
8th Grade
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Immigrants in Chains – Slave Narratives
Kathryn Jones
North Reading Middle School
February 13, 2009
8th Grade
1-2 Key Questions:
How is it possible to be free one day and enslaved another?
What did slaves experience during the Middle Passage?
1-2 Learning Objectives:
1) After viewing Prince Among Slaves and reading/analyzing two primary source slave narratives,
students will have a solid grasp of how slaves from different regions of Africa became enslaved, what
the Middle Passage was like for these people, and what their fate might be once they arrived in the
Americas.
2) Students will be able to demonstrate, through a written (and evaluated) fictional autobiography, not
only accurate historical details, but the personal emotions and familial situations/strains that
accompanied the institution of slavery.
Learning Activities:
1) Students have already viewed and taken a few notes from Prince Among Slaves, PBS Home Video.
(see Annotated Bibliography)
2) Students, for homework, were given two Primary Source readings and accompanying document
analysis sheets. Students are expected to read each Primary Source document and complete an
analysis sheet for each.
 Venture Smith – Kidnapped and Enslaved at the Age of Six (See Attached)
 Olaudah Equiano – An Account of the Middle Passage (See Attacked)
 Document Analysis Sheet – (See Attached)

Students come to class with their completed document analysis sheets, and are divided into
groups of three. Groups are given the Group Work Chart (See Attached) which asks them to
isolate facts/descriptions for three areas: Becoming enslaved, the Middle Passage, and Life in
America. Students will use all three sources to complete the chart.
3) Students will write an autobiography for a fictional slave, using historical information from sources.
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Annotated Bibliography:
“African American Voices- Olaudah Equiano” Digital History Accessed 13 February 2009. Available
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=34. One of many narratives available.
“African American Voices-Venture Smith” Digital History Accessed 13 February 2009. Available
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/black_voices/voices_display.cfm?id=34. One of many narratives available.
Prince Among Slaves, PBS Home Video. Unity Productions Foundation, 2008.
Scully, Judith. “Links.” Race, Racism, and American Law. Accessed 13 February 2009. Available
http://www.wvu.edu/~lawfac/jscully/Race/links.html. This is the source for my cover image. It also has
some great links for a variety of race related topics.
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Venture Smith – Kidnapped and Enslaved at the Age of Six
Kidnapped from his home in Guinea in 1734, at the age of six, Venture Smith was sold to the steward on a
slave ship and brought to Connecticut. At the age of 31, after several changes of ownership, he purchased
his freedom with money that he earned by hiring out his labor and "cleaning muskrats and minks, raising
potatoes and carrots, and by fishing in the night, and at odd spells." In order to purchase his wife and sons,
he fished, sailed on a whaler, ferried wood from Long Island to Rhode Island, and raised watermelons.
Later, he actually became a slaveholder, purchasing at least three slaves. At his death at the age of 77 in
1805 in East Haddam, Connecticut, he left a hundred acre farm and three houses.
They then came to us in the reeds, and the very first salute I had from them was a violent blow on the back
part of the head with the fore part of a gun, and at the same time a grasp round the neck. I then had a rope put
about my neck, as had all the women in the thicket with me, and were immediately led to my father, who
was likewise pinioned and haltered for leading. In this condition we were all led to the camp. The women
and myself being pretty submissive, had tolerable treatment from the enemy, while my father was closely
interrogated respecting his money which they knew he must have. But as he gave them no account of it, he
was instantly cut and pounded on his body with great inhumanity, that he might be induced by the torture he
suffered to make the discovery. All this availed not in the least to make him give up his money, but he
despised all the tortures which they inflicted, until the continued exercise and increase of torment, obliged
him to sink and expire. He thus died without informing his enemies where his money lay. I saw him while he
was thus tortured to death. The shocking scene is to this day fresh in my mind, and I have often been
overcome while thinking on it....
[We were] marched toward the sea… I was made waiter, having to carry his gun, etc. … The distance they
had now brought me was about four hundred miles. All the march I had very hard tasks imposed on me,
which I must perform on pain of punishment. I was obliged to carry on my head a large glat stone used for
grinding our corn, weighing as I should suppose, as much as twenty- five pounds; besides victuals, mat and
cooking utensils. Though I was pretty large and stout at my age, yet these burdens were very grievous to me,
being only six years and a half old.
…All of us were then put into the castle [a European slave trading post], and kept for market. On a certain
time I and other prisoners were put on board a canoe, under our master, and rowed away to a vessel
belonging to Rhode Island, commanded by Captain Collingwood, and the mate Thomas Mumford. While we
were going to the vessel, our master told us all to appear to the best possible advantage for sale. I was bought
on board by one Robert Mumford, steward of said vessel, for four gallons of rum, and a piece of calico, and
called Venture, on account of his having purchased me with his own private venture. Thus I came by my
name. All the slaves that were bought for that vessel's cargo, were two hundred and sixty.
Source: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, A Native of Africa (New London, Conn., 1798;
expanded ed., Hamden, Conn., 1896).
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Olaudah Equiano – An Account of the Middle Passage
Olaudah Equiano vividly recounts the shock and isolation that he felt during the Middle Passage in 1734 to
Barbados and his fear that the European slavers would eat him. He had been kidnapped and enslaved from
his native home in present-day Nigeria. He was approximately 10 ½ when he crossed the Atlantic Ocean.
Their complexions, differing so much from ours, their long hair and the language they spoke, which was
different from any I had ever heard… When I looked around the ship and saw a large furnace of copper
boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their
countenances expressing dejection and sorrow, I no longer doubted my fate. Quite overpowered with horror
and anguish, I fell motionless on the deck and fainted. When I recovered a little, I found some black people
about me, and I believe some were those who had brought me on board and had been receiving their pay.
They talked to me in order to cheer me up, but all in vain. I asked them if we were not to be eaten by those
white men with horrible looks, red faces and long hair. They told me I was not…
I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country or even the least glimpse of hope
of gaining the shore, which I now considered as friendly. I even wished for my former slavery [in Africa] in
preference to my present situation, which was filled with horrors of every kind.
There I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life. With the
loathesomeness of the stench and the crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor
had I the least desire to taste anything. I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me.
Soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me eatables and on my refusing to eat, one of them held me
fast by the hands and laid me across the windlass and tied my feet while the other flogged me severely. I had
never experienced anything of this kind before. If I could have gotten over the nettings, I would have jumped
over the side, but I could not. The crew used to watch very closely those of us who were not chained down to
the decks, lest we should leap into the water. I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely
cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating…
I inquired of these what was to be done with us. They gave me to understand we were to be carried to these
white people's country to work for them. I then was a little revived, and thought if it were no worse than
working, my situation was not so desperate. But still I feared that I should be put to death, the white people
looked and acted in so savage a manner. I have never seen among my people such instances of brutal cruelty,
and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves.
One white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a
large rope near the foremast that he died in consequence of it, and they tossed him over the side as they
would have done a brute. This made me fear these people the more, and I expected nothing less than to be
treated in the same manner.
I asked them if these people had no country, but lived in this hollow place? They told me they did not but
came from a distant land. "Then," said I, "how comes it that in all our country we never heard of them?"
They told me because they lived so far off. I then asked where were their women? Had they any like
themselves? I was told they had. "And why do we not see them" I asked. They answered, "Because they
were left behind." I asked how the vessel would go? They told me they could not tell, but there was cloth put
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upon the masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then vessels went on, and the white men had some spell or
magic they put in the water when they liked in order to stop the vessel when they liked.
I was exceedingly amazed at this account, and really thought they were spirits. I therefore wished much to be
from amongst them, for I expected they would sacrifice me. But my wishes were in vain- - for we were so
quartered that it was impossible for us to make our escape. At last, when the ship we were in had got in all
her cargo, they made ready with many fearful noises, and we were all put under deck, so that we could not
see how they managed the vessel.
The stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to
remain there for any time...some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air. But now that
the whole ship's cargo were confined together, it became absolutely pestilential. The closeness of the place
and the heat of the climate, added to the number of the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely
room to turn himself, almost suffocated us.
This produced copious perspirations so that the air became unfit for respiration from a variety of loathsome
smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died- - thus falling victims of the
improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by
the galling of the chains, which now became insupportable, and the filth of the necessary tubs [toilets] into
which the children often fell and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women and the groans of the
dying rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.
Happily perhaps for myself, I was soon reduced so low that it was necessary to keep me almost always on
deck and from my extreme youth I was not put into fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share
the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon the deck at the point of death,
which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the
deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could
change my condition for theirs. 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, when we had a smooth sea and moderate wind, two of my wearied countrymen who were chained
together (I was near them at the time), preferring death to such a life of misery, somehow made through the
nettings and jumped into the sea. Immediately another quite dejected fellow, who on account of his illness
was suffered to be out of irons, followed their example. I believe many more would very soon have done the
same if they had not been prevented by the ship's crew, who were instantly alarmed. Those of us that were
the most active were in a moment put down under the deck, and there was such a noise and confusion among
the people of the ship as I never heard before to stop her and get the boat out to go after the slaves. However,
two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other and afterwards flogged him unmercifully for thus
attempting to prefer death to slavery.
I can now relate hardships which are inseparable from this accursed trade. Many a time we were near
suffocation from the want of fresh air, which we were often without for whole days together. This, and the
stench of the necessary tubs, carried off many.
Source: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African
(London, 1789).
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Name:
Section:
Date:
DOCUMENT ANALYSIS SHEET
Title of Document:
Date of Document:
Author of Document:
Audience: Was this written to be private or
public?
Possible Author Bias?
Is this Document a Primary Source or Secondary Source?
If it has elements of both, please explain.
What significant FACTS are in
this document?
Source of Document:
What INFERENCES can you make Are there any unanswered
from this document?
questions, comments, or
observations that you have about
this document?
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Name:
Section:
Date:
You will be writing an “autobiography” for a fictional slave. Your autobiography will begin as you have
become enslaved, it will detail your Middle Passage experience, and then what your fate was once you
reached America. On the chart below, use the Prince Among Slaves video, and the narratives of Venture
Smith and Olaudah Equiano to make a list of descriptions and facts from actual slaves. Next to each
description or fact, in parenthesis, please cite the source. This graphic organizer will help you when writing
your autobiography.
Becoming Enslaved:
The Middle Passage:
Life in America:
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