"Bury the Chains" Chapter 2 Summary

In Chapter 2 of Adam Hochschild's Bury the Chains, he begins telling the story of a young African, Olaudah Equiano, who was born in the 1740's. When he was still a child, Equiano and his sister were captured by slave traders and brought to the coast of Africa to be shipped off to an unknown place to them, the Caribbean. When he arrived in Barbados, no slave owner would want him; he was too sickly from his voyage, so he was "fattened up" and then sold to Royal Navy officer Michael Pascal. For 6 years he worked for Pascal, learning English along the way. In 1762, Equiano was promoted to Royal Navy able seaman. Soon after, he was yet again captured and taken to the island of Montserrat, where he was sold to Robert King. Instead of working in the sugar fields, Equiano worked loading and tallying cargo, cutting King's hair, and as a crewman on a fleet of small ships carrying goods and slaves from the island to various West Indian islands and the North American mainland. In 1766, Equiano bought his freedom. Afterwards, he worked on many ships, and he once traveled to the Arctic. He was soon tricked by the captain of a slave ship, who said that he would sell Equiano when they reached land. Luckily, he escaped.