Author: y.livian

“This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers. This wretched situation was again aggravated by the galling of the chains, now become insupportable; and the filth of the necessary tubs, into which the children often fell, and were almost suffocated. The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.” (58)

Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano gives insight into the life of a slave from the direct source of a slave himself. In this quote, Equiano explains to us the horrible and tragic events that the slaves went through while on the slave ships. Even when slaves had to perform body functions such as going to the bathroom, they were still chained. The slaves were living in terrible conditions, there was excrement and refuse everywhere, and the air was heavy with terrible smells. No one had any privacy whatsoever; there was nowhere to move. The slaves would constantly grow sick from not eating or drinking. Equiano explains many of the slaves were terrified when they saw white faces. Slaves were separated from their families and were forced to be with other slaves who did not speak the same language. These slaves were beaten with out mercy. The situation was so terrible that even death was considered a pleasure to the slaves. Equiano gave us a realistic point of view of what the slaves physically and mentally encountered.

“Senor Montezuma, l do not understand how such a great Prince and wise man as you are has not come to the conclusion, in your mind, that these idols of yours are not gods, but evil things that are called devils, and so that you may know it and all your priests may see it clearly, do me the favour to approve of my placing a cross here on the top of this lower, and that in one part of these oratories where your Huichilobos and Tezcatepuca stand we may divide off a space where we can set up an image of Our lady and you will see by the fear in which these Idols hold it that they are deceiving you.” (222)

Based on this quote, we can tell how shocked and angry Cortés was when he found out that Montezuma and his people do not believe in God. Montezuma responded by saying: “Señor Malinche, if I had known that you would have said such defamatory things I would not have shown you my gods, we consider them to be very good, for they give us health and rains and good seed times and seasons and as many victories as we desire, and we are obliged to worship them and make sacrifices, and I pray you not to say another word to their dishonor.” Cortes angered Montezuma with what he said, and Montezuma did not have great words for him either. Montezuma was considered as the god of the Aztecs. He was a very powerful man, one who was very well respected. Bernal Diaz said of Montezuma: “I noticed another thing, that when other great chiefs came from distant lands about disputes or business, when they reached the apartments of the Great Montezuma, they had to come barefoot and with poor mantles, and they might not enter directly into the Palace, but had to loiter about a little on one side of the Palace door, for to enter hurriedly was considered to be disrespectful.” This quote shows us just how respected he was and how even the smallest things can be considered disrespectful. Why would Montezuma believe in Christianity when he had all the power to himself. This is very similar to the situation in which Christopher Columbus had when he explored the Native American land. One of Columbus’ goals was to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, which is exactly what Cortes is trying to do with the Aztec people.

Hi, my name is Yonatan Livian, but people call me Yoni. I come from Great Neck, Long Island, from a traditional Jewish family; one who values my education and views it as a tool to further my future. I hope to one day work in business, although I am not sure which specific field yet. I am a huge sports fan, and I avidly follow college basketball and soccer. To me, studying history plays a vital role in preparing me for my potential future in business. By analyzing past communications, deals, successes and failures, I hope to be able to distinguish between choices which will bring about success and those that will bring about failure.