Why was Equiano almost glad to be sick on the ship?

A. He was given his own room.

B. He was given extra food.

C. They sent him back to Africa.

D. He was allowed to stay up on the deck.

Equiano was almost glad to be sick on the ship because he was allowed to stay up on the deck.

Explanation:

This line is taken from the second chapter "Middle Passage" of the book "Interesting Narrative". This chapter gives the experience of young Olaudah Equiano in a slave ship which traveled from South Africa to Caribbean Islands of Barbados.

Equiano was placed in a under the deck with his other fellow people. The smell of the air become insufferable as number of people are high. They were all the subjected to severe punishments such as flogging which lead to sweat and suffocation under the deck. But the condition of Equiano became so low that the whites decided to keep him on the deck all the time.

He experienced severe emotional and physical trauma. As he saw many of his people were dying because of insufficient air to breathe, they were not given proper food even though whites had more than sufficient, many were killed cruelly for trying to escape, and the suffering went endlessly. At last, all the people on board were happy when they finally saw the Islands of Caribbean Sea.

Equiano felt almost glad to be sick on the ship because he was kept on deck, so he wouldn't die from his sickness.