Middle Passage

"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, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing. 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 . . . while the other flogged me severely. . . . I have seen . . . African prisoners . . . hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself. . . . I found some of my own nation, which in a small degree gave ease to my mind. 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. . . . 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 among any people such instances of brutal cruelty: . . . The stench of the hold . . . was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time . . . The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, being so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself. . . . The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered it a scene of horror almost inconceivable."

--The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa (1789).