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Quiz for America Compared: Olaudah Equiano: The Brutal “Middle Passage”

Question

1. What does Olaudah Equiano’s account of the Middle Passage suggest about why the average slave mortality rate reached about 14 percent during the Atlantic crossing?

Slaves were not provided with sufficient food and water during the journey.

Contagious diseases were rampant among the slave ships’ human cargo.

Assaulted by illness and emotional suffering, many Africans lost the will to live.

Regular beatings at the hands of the ships’ crewmen led to the high death rate.

Correct. The answer is c. The horrendous conditions of the Middle Passage resulted in physical and emotional suffering that led many enslaved Africans to end their lives.

Incorrect. The answer is c. The horrendous conditions of the Middle Passage resulted in physical and emotional suffering that led many enslaved Africans to end their lives.

Question

2. Equiano described being greeted upon his arrival in Barbados by “Africans of all languages.” This experience serves as evidence of which of the following?

Tribalization

Planters’ use of ethnic diversity to deter slave revolts

Slaves’ resistance to control by whites

The creation of an African American culture

Correct. The answer is b. Equiano’s encounter with Africans of all languages indicates that slave owners in Barbados acquired slaves from many different cultures who spoke many different languages in order to prevent them from organizing against whites.

Incorrect. The answer is b. Equiano’s encounter with Africans of all languages indicates that slave owners in Barbados acquired slaves from many different cultures who spoke many different languages in order to prevent them from organizing against whites.