Chapter Two

Chapter Two of Hochschild's Bury the Chains is devoted to recounting the story of Olaudah Equiano. The chapter first depicts parts of Equiano's child, largely quoting from his autobiography. We then move into Equiano's capture and entrance into slavery. Hochschild is sure to explain the horrors of the forced march to the coast including using chilling imagery when he describes "the trails to the coast that were littered with skeletons." The chapter then moves into the voyage into bondage and some of Equiano's experiences during his time in slavery. Hochschild then speaks of slave rebellions that were a large part of slave society that brought scared whites and some slaves alike. Equiano using his natural business savvy he began trading as his ship sailed to various locales until eventually through his profits he was able to buy his freedom from bondage and received a note as such from Robert King. One interesting passage that ended the chapter was that Equiano helped Irving select slaves to be field hands and that even though he fought fiercely to get his own freedom slavery was so pervasive at the time that he took for granted that any plantation in the Americas would be cultivated by slaves.