Date: 1789

"Are there not causes enough to which the apparent inferiority of an African may be ascribed, without limiting the goodness of God, and supposing he forbore to stamp understanding on certainly his own image, because 'carved in ebony.'"

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"Does not slavery itself depress the mind, and extinguish all its fire and every noble sentiment?"

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"They [African customs] had been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression on my mind, which time could not erase, and which all the adversity and variety of fortune I have since experienced served only to rivet and record; for, whether the love of one's country be real or imaginary...

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"Though you were early forced from my arms, your image has been always rivetted in my heart, from which neither time nor fortune have been able to remove it; so that, while the thoughts of your sufferings have damped my prosperity, they have mingled with adversity and increased its bitterness."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"I had a mind on which every thing uncommon made its full impression, and every event which I considered as marvellous."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"You stupify them with stripes, and think it necessary to keep them in a state of ignorance; and yet you assert that they are incapable of learning; that their minds are such a barren soil or moor, that culture would be lost on them; and that they come from a climate, where nature, though prodiga...

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"I was very ill for eleven days and near dying; eternity was now exceedingly impressed on my mind, and I feared very much that awful event."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"These words had been impressed on my mind from the very day I was forced from Deptsord to the present hour, and I now saw them, as I thought, fulfilled and verified."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"All within my breast was tumult, wildness, and delirium!"

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)

Date: 1789

"These dreams however made no impression on my mind."

— Equiano, Olaudah [Gustavus Vasa] (c. 1745-1797)