Ottobah
Cugoano
was
born in Africa in about 1757. As a child
he was kidnapped and sold as a slave to plantation
owners in Grenada. He remained in the West Indies until purchased
by an English merchant. He was taken to England in 1772 where he was
set free. Later he entered the service of the royal artist, Richard
Cosway.
Cugoano,
who adopted the name of John Steuart, as one of the leaders of London's
black community. In 1786 he played an important role in the case of
Henry Demane, a black man who had been kidnapped and was about to
be shipped to the West Indies as a slave. He contacted Granville
Sharp, who managed to get Demane rescued before the ship left
port.
Cugoano
was taught
to read and write. In 1787, with the help of his friend, Olaudah
Equiano,
he published an account of his experiences, Narrative
of the Enslavement of a Native of America.
Copies of his book was sent to George
III and leading
politicians. He failed to persuade the king to change his opinions
and like other members of the royal family remained against abolition
of the slave trade.
In his book Cugoano was
the first African to demand publicly the total abolition of the slave
trade and the freeing of all slaves. In 1793 Cugoano upset William
Wilberforce by describing him as a hypocrite when he refused to
support the campaign to end slavery.
(1)
Ottobah Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
I was early snatched away from my native country, with about eighteen
or twenty more boys and girls, as we were
playing in a field. We lived but a few days'
journey from the coast where we were kidnapped, and consigned
to Grenada. Some of us attempted, in vain,
to run away, but pistols and cutlasses were soon introduced, threatening,
that if we offered to stir, we should all lie dead on the spot.
We were soon led out of the way which we knew, and towards evening,
as we came in sight of a town, they told us that this great man of
theirs lived there, but pretended it was too late to go and see
him that night. Next morning there came three other men, whose language
differed from ours, and spoke to some of those who watched us all
the night.
I asked what I was brought there for, he told me
to learn the ways of the browfow, that is, the white-faced people.
I saw him take a gun, a piece of cloth, and some lead for me, and
then he told me that he must now leave me there, and went off. This
made me cry bitterly, but I was soon conducted to a prison, for three
days, where I heard the groans and cries of many, and saw some of
my fellow-captives. But when a vessel arrived to conduct us away to
the ship, it was a most horrible scene; there was nothing to be heard
but the rattling of chains, smacking of whips, and the groans and
cries of our fellow-men. Some would not stir from the ground, when
they were lashed and beat in the most horrible manner. I have forgot
the name of this infernal fort.
(2)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
We were taken in the ship that came for us, to
another that was ready to sail from Cape Coast. When we were put into
the ship, we saw several black merchants coming on board, but we were
all drove into our holes, and not suffered to speak to any of them.
In this situation we continued several days in sight of our native
land. And when we found ourselves at last taken away, death was more
preferable than life; and a plan was concerted amongst us, that we
might burn and blow up the ship, and to perish all together in the
flames: but we were betrayed by one of our own countrywomen, who slept
with some of the headmen of the ship, for it was common for the dirty
filthy sailors to take the African women and lie upon their bodies;
but the men were chained and pent up in holes. It was the women and
boys which were to burn the ship, with the approbation and groans
of the rest; though that was prevented, the discovery was likewise
a cruel bloody scene.
But it would be needless to give
a description of all the horrible scenes
which we saw, and the base treatment which we met with in this dreadful
captive situation, as the similar cases of thousands, which suffer
by this infernal traffic, are well known. Let it suffice to say that
I was thus lost to my dear indulgent parents and relations, and they
to me. All my help was cries and tears, and these could not avail,
nor suffered long, till one succeeding woe and dread swelled up another.
Brought from a state of innocence and freedom, and, in a barbarous
and cruel manner, conveyed to a state of horror and slavery, this
abandoned situation may be easier conceived than described.
(3)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
Being in this dreadful captivity and horrible slavery, without any
hope of deliverance, for about eight or
nine months, beholding the most dreadful scenes of misery and cruelty,
and seeing my miserable companions often cruelly lashed, and, as it
were, cut to pieces, for the most trifling faults; this made me often
tremble and weep, but I escaped better than many of them. For eating
a piece of sugar-cane, some were cruelly lashed, or struck over the
face, to knock their teeth out. Some of the stouter ones, I suppose,
often reproved, and grown hardened and stupid with many cruel beatings
and lashings, or perhaps faint and pressed with hunger and hard labour,
were often committing trespasses of this kind, and when detected,
they met with exemplary punishment. Some told me they had their teeth
pulled out, to deter others, and to prevent them from eating any cane
in future. Thus seeing my miserable companions and countrymen in this
pitiful, distressed, and horrible situation, with all the brutish
baseness and barbarity attending it, could not but fill my little
mind horror and indignation.
(4)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
But I must own, to the shame of my own countrymen, that I was first
kidnapped and betrayed by some of my own complexion, who were the
first cause of my exile, and slavery; but if there were no buyers
there would be no sellers. So far as I can remember, some of the Africans
in my country keep slaves, which they take in war, or for debt; but
those which they keep are well fed, and good care taken of them, and
treated well; and as to their clothing, they differ according to the
custom of the country. But I may safely say, that all the poverty
and misery that any of the inhabitants of Africa meet with among themselves,
is far inferior to those inhospitable regions of misery which they
meet with in the West-Indies, where their hard-hearted overseers have
neither Regard to the laws of God, nor the life of their fellow-men.
(5)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
Thanks
be to God, I was delivered from Grenada, and that horrid brutal slavery.
A gentleman coming to England took me for his servant, and brought
me away, where I soon found my situation become more agreeable. After
coming to England, and seeing others write and read, I had a strong
desire to learn, and getting what assistance I could, I applied myself
to learn reading and writing, which soon became my recreation, pleasure,
and delight; and when my master perceived that I could write some,
he sent me to a proper school for that purpose to learn. Since, I
have endeavoured to improve my mind in reading, and have sought to
get all the intelligence I could, in my situation of life, towards
the state of my brethren and countrymen in complexion, and of the
miserable situation of those who are barbarously sold into captivity,
and unlawfully held in slavery.
(6)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
If
any man should buy another man... and compel him to his
service and slavery without
any agreement of that man to serve him, the enslaver is a robber,
and a defrauder of that man every day. Wherefore it is as much the
duty of a man who is robbed in that manner to get out of the hands
of his enslaver, as it is for any honest community of men to get out
of the hands of rogues and villains.
(7)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
Is
it not strange to think, that they who ought to be considered
as the most learned and
civilized people in the world, that they should carry on a traffic
of the most barbarous cruelty and injustice, and that many... are
become so dissolute as to think slavery, robbery and murder no crime?
(8)
Ottobah
Cugoano, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa
(1787)
I
would propose that a total abolition of slavery should be
made and proclaimed; and
that an universal emancipation of slaves should begin from the date
thereof... And... I would propose, that a fleet of some ships of war
should be immediately sent to the coast of Africa, and particularly
where the slave trade is carried on, with faithful men to direct that
none should be brought from the coast of Africa without their own
consent and the approbation of their friends, and to; intercept
all merchant ships that were bringing them away.
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