Read the excerpt from Thoughts and Sentiments. I saw him take a gun, a piece of cloth, and some lead for me, and then he told me
that he must now leave me there, and went off. This made me cry bitterly, but I was soon conducted to a prison, for three days, where I heard the groans and cries of many, and saw some of my fellow-captives. But when a vessel arrived to conduct us away to the ship, it was a most horrible scene; there was nothing to be heard but rattling of chains, smacking of whips, and the groans and cries of our fellow-men. What is Cugoano’s purpose in this excerpt?
I would say that this excerpt is used to reveal the horrors of enslavement. It seems that Cugoano described the scene with some many details for the reader to be able to actually picture what was happening, the horror suffered and how it might affect any person in that place. It was not just him suffering but there were others who he could listen to, they were also crying.
