then his ears cut off bit by bit, because he had been connected with a white woman who was a common prostitute…” Other instances of abuse were a man half hanged and burnt for trying to poison his master, another man having his leg cut off for running away and a man who was beaten so badly some of his bones were broken. Equiano also witnessed unusual forms of punishment such as metal irons around the neck and mouth and slaves thrown into a wooden box, sealed with no room to move. Slave owners in the West Indies were cruel. They did not have to own a slave in order to control them. A free man aboard Equiano’s ship was apprehended by another slave master claiming that the man was his property. The free man had his emancipation papers but it did not matter, slave owners disregarded the rights of the free black man. In the hopes of gaining his freedom, Equiano did not think he could ever be free if he remained in the West Indies. “…I had thought only slavery dreadful, but the state of a free Negro appeared to me now equally so at least, and in some events worse, for they live in constant alarm for their liberty…for such is the equity of the West Indian laws, that no free Negro’s evidence will be admitted in their courts of justice.” In Virginia, Equiano spent time on a plantation. It was here where he was mortified after seeing a woman of his color chained in irons, he had never seen before; one of which went over the woman’s mouth so as she could not eat, drink or barely even talk. It was hear where he was given the name Gustavas Vassa against his will; his master wanted to signify that Equiano wass his slave and that he had no history. If he refused to answer to his new name, he would be punished. “…And when I refused to answer to my new name, which I at first did, it gained me many a cuff…” Many incidents in Georgia showed how the slave owners in ...
