Read the excerpt of the following poem.
"Reflections on the State of Mind" By Olaudah Equiano
Well may I say my life has been
One scene of sorrow and of pain;
From early days I griefs have known,
And as I grew my griefs have grown:
Dangers were always in my path;
And fear of wrath, and sometimes death;
While pale dejection in me reign'd
I often wept, by grief constrain'd.
When taken from my native land,
By an unjust and cruel band,
How did uncommon dread prevail!
My sighs no more I could conceal.
'To ease my mind I often strove,
And tried my trouble to remove:
I sung, and utter'd sighs between—
Assay'd to stifle guilt with sin.
Olaudah Equiano was born in what is modern day southern Nigeria in 1745. Using your knowledge of what was happening in the world in the 1700s, what could you surmise from the bold-faced text that he author is referencing?
Atlantic slave trade
The bubonic plague
World War II
The Napoleonic Wars
