The Exiles

When the carriage from Newgate arrives at the shipyard, an accusatory crowd awaits Evangeline and the rest of the prisoners. Women insult them, and many throw rotten vegetables, eggs, and rocks at them. Even so, Evangeline fights back the urge to bend down and run her fingers through the dirt, convinced that “this would almost certainly be the last time her feet would touch English soil” (102). A skiff awaits them to carry them to their repurposed slaving ship—the Medea—and the ship’s men continually make obscene sexual comments to the women. When Olive confronts them for their behavior, one of them threatens to throw her overboard until she apologizes.

On board, the men are no different—all of them leer at the women and lick their lips while making comments about sleeping with them. Their shackles are removed, and Evangeline considers leaping overboard. The midshipman goes over the rules of the ship in terms of bathing and sleeping arrangements, but when he shows them down to the orlop deck—the deck “just above the bilge” (107), Evangeline almost vomits at the smell of human waste and rotting animals.

He advises that the women keep their valuable items hidden so no one steals them.