Caribbean Connections: 
Overview of Regional History

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“…There were several brothers who, in the sale, were sold in different lots; and it was very moving on this occasion to see their distress and hear their cries at parting…. Is it not enough that we are torn from our country and friends to toil for your luxury and lust of gain? Must every tender feeling be likewise sacrificed to your avarice? Are the dearest friends and relations, now rendered more dear by their separation from their kindred, still to be parted from each other, and thus prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together and mingling their sufferings and sorrows? Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.”---By Olaudah Equiana from “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiana or Gustavus Vassa, the African.” This abridged essay is reprinted in Unit 3: Bitter Sugar of Overview of Regional History.