Bury the Chains Chapter 2

Hochschild starts off with a scene of a slave boat. On this boat lies one of the most remembered (because of all he recorded) slaves. Olaudah Equiano was a slave who was a rider on one of Newtons slave ships. Equiano commented on the amount of deaths/suicides these ships produced; legend has it that sharks would follow the slave vessels feeding on the bodies in their wake. Equiano was a friendly man who could make friends with officers and men alike, he realized his key to survival, and also learned to read and write. Equiano rose in ranks and was even called a British seaman but once questions arose as to how illegal it was when they kept him in England they stripped Equiano if his writings and set him up on yet another slave ship. Finally at the end of the chapter we see Equiano got away successfully.

Equiano realized along the way nearly half of the captured slaves died being transported on the vessels. This was a very horrifying statistic for the British seamen who would be transporting these slaves. More so, this was a horrific statistic for the slaves and Equiano. The ships were so brutal and statistics of survival so grim that even once on the ship people would off themselves just to not be the white mans slave (shit can you blame them).

in 1762 Equiano was titled as a seamen. Equiano knew the ropes and did a good job educating himself on reading and writing. When he was "promoted" the captain realized keeping him enslaved in Britain may be illegal so he dropped off Equiano on another slave ship, ripped up his writings, and said farewell. This is monumentally fucked up, first Equiano was promoted and considered almost a real man on these ships then he was cast off as another slave.