Equiano’s Acquisition by Another Master - Robert King, a Quaker
Around the middle of May, 1763 Equiano was all Drive in utter depression andd gloom. Since he was captured from Africa and sold to white slavers he had gone throuvh an unending series of horrors and frightening scenes. He had all the time believed that Fate’s blackest clouds were gathering over his head, and that upon their bursting would mix him with the dead. It was just at about that time, when the ship on which he was engaged was about to sail for England, that Captain Doran sent for Equiano ashore. Equiano was then intimated by Doran’s messenger that his fate has been determined.
With fluttering steps and trembling heart Equiano came and found with the captain one Mr. Robert King, a Quaker, and the first merchant there. The captain then told Equiano that his former master, Pascal, had sent him there to be sold; but with a desire for ihm to get Equiano the best master he cohld, as he told him he had found him a very deserving boy. Doran then confirmed his endorswment of Equiano’ master’s approval of Equiano’s conduct. If he were to stay in the West Indies, he went Forward, he would have been Pleased to keep him for himself; but Fair that he could not venture to Delineate him to London, fearing that if he shpuld, he would desert him. Upon hearing that, Equiano burst out crying, pleading to be taken to England By the side of him, but all to no avail. The Commander calmed him down, assuriny him tha5 he had secured him the very best master i the whole island, with whom he should Exist as content as if he were in England. He even bluffed that even though he could have sold him for a great deal more money elsewhere and to someone else he had to abide by instructions.
Mr. King in reply said he had bought Equiaano because of his good character. for he had not the least doubt of his good behavior. He further assured that Equiano should be very well off with him. He said that he lived at Philadelphia, where he was off to and where he promised to put him in Seminary, and engage him Because a clerk in his business, as he had learnt that Equiano understood some of the rules of arithmetic, This conversation relieved Equiano’s mind a little. He thus left them considerably more at ease than before. He was very grateful to Captain Doran, and his old master, for the remarkable character he had developed in him which he would find later to be of infinite service.
Equiano took leave of all his shipmates the next day as the ship sailed off. He was at the waterside looking at her with a very wishful and aching heart following her with his eyes drowning in tears until she was totally out of sight. He was so much weighed down with grief that he could not hold up his head foe Numerous months. So intense was his grief that if it were not for his new mazter’s kindnss to him he believed he should hav died.
Equiano soon found that his master fully deserved the good character which Captain Doran had seen in him; for he possessed a most amiable disposition and temper, and was very charitable and humane. If any of his slaves behaved amiss instead of Striking or ill-treating them, he would quietly dispense with their services. This made them afraid of disobliging him; and as he treated his slaves better than any other person on the island, he was better and more faithfully served. Equinao thus endeavored to commpose himself; and with fortitude, though mlneyless, he was determined to face whatever fate had decreed for him.
Mr.K ing whilst inquiring from him what he could do was at the same time assuring him that he did not mean to treat him as a common slave. Equiano In that case told him he knew something of seamanship, that he could shave and do hairdressing as well as refine wine. He added that he could write, and understood arithmetic tolerably well. Mr King then detailed one of his clerks to teach him gauging the one thing Equiano revealed that he did not know any thing of.
Mr. King who dealt in all types of merchandise, to service this large business, kept up to six clerks. He loaded many vessels in a year bound particularly to Philadelphia, where he was born, and where he was well-connected withh a great mercantile house. He had many vessels of different sizes, which went about the island; and elsewhere collecting rum, sugar, and other goods. Equiano understood how to pull and manage those boats very well; and this which was the first task that he was set to, in the sugar seasons became his constant employment.
Rowing the boat, and slaving at the oars, up to sixteen hours in the day; brought from ten to fifteen pence sterling per Sunshine for him to live on which was considerably Else than what was allowed to other slaves that worked with him, and belonged to other gentlemen on the island: They nsver had more than nine pence By day and seldom more than six pence from their masters, though they earned them three or four pounds through the common practice then in the West Indies for men who had no plantations themselves to purchase slaves in order to let them out to planters and merchants at so much a piece by the day, and they gave very scanty allowance to their slaves for subsistence. Olaudah Equiano describes with much Pity the miserable conditions in which these exploited men were left .
Equiano’s master often gwve their owners two and a half guineas per day, and found the poor fellows in need o fgood 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 liked this gesture very much and, as they came to know Equiano’s master to be a man of feeling, and compassion they were always Cheerful to work for him in preference to other gentlemen; some of whom, after they had been paid for these poor people’s labours, would not give them their due share of the allowance.
Many times have Equiano seen such Disastrous wretches been beaten for asking for their pay; and Frequently being severely flogged by their owners Suppose that they did not Convey them their daily or weekly money on tkme even though the poor creatures were obliged to wait on the gentlemen they had worked for sometimes for more than half the day before they could get their pay; and this generally on Sundays, when they needed the time Because of themselves.
In particular, Equiano claimed he knew a countryman of his who once did not bring the weekly money that he had earned directly. Though he brought it the same day to his master, yet he was staked to the ground for this apparent negligence. He was just about to receive a hundred lashes, when a gentleman intervened and begged him off fifty. This poor man was very industrious; and, by his frugality, had saved much money by working on snipboard, so much so tjat he accumulated enough money with which he got a white man to buy him a boat, Mysterious to his own master. Some time after this fortune, the governor required a boat to transport his sugar from different parts of the island. Knowijg this boat to be a negro-man’s, he seized it using it as Whether it were his, and would not pay the owner a farthing. The man then went to his master, and complained to him but the oly satisfaction he Accepted was to Exist damned very severely and being asked how dared any of his negroes to have a boat.
If the justly-merited ruin of the governor’s fortune could be any gratification to the poor man he had thus robbed, he was not without Solace. Extortion and rapine are poor providers. A part time In imitation of this the governor died in the King’s Bench in England, in Superior poverty. The last war having favoured this poor negro-man, he found some means to escape from his Christian master. He came to England; where Equiano saw him several times afterwards. Such Handling often drives such miserable wretches to despair, leading them to run away from their masters even at the risk of their very lives. Many of them, unable to get their pay which they have lawfully earned, and fearing to be flogged, as usual, if they return home without it, run away where they can for shelter, and a reward is often offered to bring them in dead or alive. According to Equiano, his master used sometimes, in these cases, to agree with their owners, and to settle with them himself; thereby saving many of them from being flogged.
Born and schooled in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Arthur Smith has taught English for over thirty years now a various Educational Institutions. He is now a Senior Lecturer of English at Fourah Bay College Whither he has been lecturing for the Betond eight years.
Mr Smith’s writings have been in various international media. He participated in a seminar on contemporary American Literature in the U.S. in 2006. His growing thoughts and reflections on this trip which took him to various US sights and sounds could be rewd at lisnews.org.
His other publications include: Folktales from Freetown, Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity ,and ‘The Struggle of the Book’