CH.2Equiano

As I read chapter 2 I was amazed at the bad treatment children had. I couldn't stop reading because it just got more intense and I had already heard about slavery, but didn't know they were treated so bad. I was struck when he was torn away from his sister and his descriptions about not being able to do anything about it, it's heartbreaking and I can almost picture this in my head. Today we live in a society where we don't see this anymore, but we must be aware that in many parts of the world it is still happening and many kids can't do absolutely nothing about it. They are helpless!
It was easy to compare the differences in treatment from the European whites vs. the African masters, though there was still bad treatment but Europeans treated him worse! I would assume it had to do with the color of his skin and him being African, being different in every way than the europeans. It wasn't fare to be treated like that from both, but I would consider that a lot of Europeans took advantage of slaves because they came from somewhere else and they didn't have much to say because they just wanted to work.
Another part of this that I found interesting was that he didn't know much about his surroundings and when he saw things at the widow's he was in shock, almost like if he was a new person in this place. He was given sugarcane to try, which he had never had before. It made me realize that social economic class makes a huge difference in how you see your world and how oblivious one can be if you don't socialize with others who are different than you. Overall every description in this chapter became so vivid in my head and I just wanted to continue reading because if I closed my eyes I could be there and imagine what he lived. It was sad in some parts, like when he was treated so bad and separated from his sister, but it was also nice to learn more and more of what we don't know!

Chapter 3 "Slavery and Immigrants from Africa"

While reading chapter 3 I found it interesting to read about slaves not being considered "immigrants". It was brought to my attention becuase it reminded me that slaves were not seen as regular people like the whites, rahter they were seen as poor, unwanted, and uneducated people. What some people don't realize is that slaves did alot of labor for those with big companies. Slaves are part of American history because they were immigrants who came looking for a better life, to work and save money to live in better conditions. But as we already know, that wasn't the case. Africans were treated differently, they were beat, killed, and at times they weren't even fed.

Also, it was interesting to learn that most slaves were young males. But more interesting, that by the end of the slave trade it was balanced out with both males and females. I can see that they chose to having the younger age group becasue they were able to handle long work hours and most importantly they could survive longer than an older person could without having something to eat. On page 64, towards the end of the chapter it mentioned that the mortality rates for African babies was higher than the ones of white babies. Well that didn't surprise me! ofcourse it would be higher, African slaves didn't have the resources to survive and no one cared about them. White people only cared about them working for them to make money and be wealthy. It's sad to read this because wealthy families couldn've helped these people survive, but instead they decided to let innocent babies die.