“I was now more miserable, if possible, than before. The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was gone.” (page 51)
This quote was stated by Olaudah Equiano at his worst moments, when his sister was torn apart from him as he was again sold. Equiano presents a sense of calmness and stability when he is with his sister, as he says that he is in no pain when he is around his sister. This just shows that his greatest pain wasn’t because of the kidnapping nor the treatment he received even after striking a chicken in the head with a pebble, rather it was being apart from his sister. Equiano received more emotional pain rather than not, as this line from him is only the first of an entire paragraph in which he stated how he was affected by the loss of his sister.
This line is placed in the beginning of the reading because it is to show that no pain that Equiano suffered was greater than this. In the reading, Equiano shows that he endured much pain over and over again, in many forms and ways, but he never expands and explains how the pain affected him the way he does when talking about the split between him and his sister. I thus believe that this part and this line is the most important line when talking about his pain going through many struggles in his journey of being a slave. He talks about her in a different way in the passage, as if he was talking to her even though she was not there. This is just another emphasis in how pivotal this loss was.
I agree with you when you say you feel as if that is the most important line when talking about the process he underwent to become a slave. Many people probably imagine that the most painful part about becoming a slave would be, the actual lifestyle and the feelings of worthless they are subjected to, however its no surprise that being torn from your family is the most difficult. Equiano didn’t seem to focus on anything in terms of pain nearly as much as he did when he discussed the pain he felt from losing his sister. I feel as if a lot of people tend not to think about how difficult being torn from your family is, compared to some of the other hardships people face when becoming slaves.