James Stout

And although he claimed his village was only nominally controlled by the king, right?

That like, yeah, we have a king, but he's not really a factor in daily life, which is probably accurate.

As a young boy, he'd never heard of white men or Europeans or even the ocean.

His father was a village elder and held a high position in local government.

As a child, Olaudah seems to have had a keen eye for injustice.

Because of his father's position, he spent a good deal of time watching court proceedings and later wrote that adultery for women was often punished by slavery or death.

Quote, the men, however, do not preserve the same constancy to their wives, which they expect from them.

One thing you see about Alota is that he is he is a thinker.

This is not a man who just accepts like, oh, yeah, adultery.

You got to kill a woman if she does that.

He's a man who's like, but the guys are all cheating and nobody cares about that.

It seems unfair.

Yeah.

That seems wrong.

Yeah, he's an empathetic and intelligent man.

He was aware of slavery from a very young age.

You had to be in the part of Africa he lived because there are slavers running rampant.

He later wrote about stout mahogany-colored men from the southwest who traveled through town to trade firearms, gunpowder, and other goods.

Quote,

They always carry slaves through our land, but the strictest account is exacted of their manner of procuring them before they are suffered to pass.