James Stout

Sometimes indeed we sold slaves to them, but they were only prisoners of war, or such among us as had been convicted of kidnapping, or adultery, or some other crimes which we esteemed heinous.

Now, these are his recollections of how he justified things as a small child, right?

This is not how he feels about the matter as an adult.

And, in fact, he makes it clear in his autobiography that his belief that, like, well, these guys, you know, they're not allowed to just take slaves willy-nilly, right?

You know, we make sure that they're not – that's not accurate, right?

That's a thing he learns, unfortunately, not long later in his childhood, right?

And he does note at the time that like, well, you know, my dad told me that, yeah, it's OK.

We always make sure that, you know, they're not just grabbing people off the street at random, you know, when they come through.

But he knows like they always carry these big empty sacks with them.

I wonder what those are for.

Geez.

For Christmas stuff, I assume.

Yeah, he's a child, so he doesn't really see that as a warning sign until it was too late.

Now, there is some basic knowledge that they are in danger because he writes that during the day when the grown people leave town to work the fields, the kids would assemble to play.

And at least one kid at any given time would have to stand watch, would climb up a tree to watch for kidnappers who, quote, "...sometimes took those opportunities of our parents' absence to attack and carry off as many as they could seize."

So first off, you get a really good glimpse in Equiano's book as to like what the slave trade has done to daily life in like these small villages in this part of Africa where it's like, yeah, the kids just know that you always have to be aware that like kidnappers might come and steal all of you.

That's a real danger.

Yeah, they're not making it up this time.

No, he writes, quote, one day as I was watching at the top of a tree in our yard, I saw one of those people come into the yard of our next neighbor, but one to kidnap, there being so many stout young people in it.

Immediately on this, I gave the alarm of the rogue and he was surrounded by the stoutest of them who entangled him with cords that he could not escape till some of the grown people came and secured him.