He had never seen such cruelty towards men of his own race, and towards others as well. People were flogged, beaten and whipped mercilessly for many reasons, and died of diseases caused by poor sanitary conditions. He was beaten for not eating, people were beaten for trying to kill themselves, and the air was so rancid it made people suffocate. Equiano's account of the Middle Passage could be incorporated into an anti-slavery appeal by showing how mistreated slaves were in the Middle Passage. Equiano's intended audience was likely slave owners or people capable of doing something about slavery. Equiano was an adult when he wrote this, which was an account of his childhood thirty years before. This is important because stories change over the years. We lavish them, we forget things and the stories seem to take on a whole new meaning. This story could be completely true, or it could be completely false to make people believe it was worse than it actually was. Also, if Equiano had been born in South Carolina, and not Africa, this text could be completely false. If he was born there and never came from Africa, then this account is false and should be taken as