Olaudah Equiano Essay

"I believe there are few events in my life which have not happened to many; it is true the incidents of it are numerous, and, did I consider myself an European, I might say my sufferings were great; but when I compare my lot with that of most of my countrymen, I regard myself as a particular favorite of heaven, and acknowledge the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life." Olaudah Equiano lived the life as a slave like many black people of the 18th century. He was born free but soon was forced into slavery which took him all around the world. From his accounts he has written down, he shows his life as a slave. Equiano had been bought and sold throughout the Americas and Europe; he showed the

Some Africans did not go without putting up a fight. For instance, Captain Tomba led many villagers “in burning huts and killing neighbors who cooperated with slave traders” (14). He was later captured and sent to the slave ship where he would be sold in the New World. The slaves also resisted by refusing to eat. Most of them decided they would rather have death than to live the lifestyle on the slave ships. The captains punished those who refused to eat by giving them lashes to the bare skin until they decided to eat. Olaudah Equiano could be considered one of the more fortunate Africans involved in the slave trade. Rediker uses Equiano to show how Africans were kidnapped and brought to the slave ship. Equiano was home alone with his sister when he was snatched by a neighboring enemy tribe. Tribes were kidnapping each other to sell to the slave traders for goods and even weapons. Equiano was separated from his sister and sold off to merchants before actually boarding the slave ship. He mentioned several times how he would rather die than be on the slave ship. He noticed right away that “the slave ship was equipped with nettings to prevent precisely such desperate rebellion” (109). Equiano went to the Americas and was left alone when none of the merchants purchased him. He was sold to a captain and boarded his ship back to England. On this slave ship, he was treated much better. He got to stay on the deck and eat better food than he had

If it were not for the stories past down from generation to generation or the documentations in historical books, the history of the twelve million African slaves that traveled the “Middle Passage” in miserable conditions would not exist. Olaudah Equiano contributes to this horrid history with The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Through this narrative, the appalling personal experience of each slave is depicted. He accomplishes his rhetorical purpose of informing the world of the slave experience in this narrative. His use of unique style and rhetorical devices in this conveying narrative portray his imperative rhetorical purpose.

Another individual, Olaudah Equiano, was captured in Nigeria. He was taken by ship across the Middle Passage. Once he was put aboard the ship, the crew roughed him up some in order to test his fortitude. Having looked around his situation, he noticed the other slaves were very dejected. He passed out and awoke with members of the party that had sold him around him. He was afraid he was being sold to be eaten, but was assured he was not. He was led to the lower decks of the ship. The stench and disgust of the area were more than he could take. Olaudah became depressed and fell very sick. He often wished that death would come and take him. Once the cargo ship was fully loaded, the space was exceedingly limited. He was beaten for not eating and whipped hourly. After finding some of his own nation, he was told that they were being taken to a white man’s country to work. This was some relief to him. He soon became so weak that he was brought to the deck and allowed to stay there. This was a minor relief as he had to witness those that were brought form below at near death. During a period of calm seas, several slaves successfully jumped ship. The crew was quick to react and made all slaves go below deck. After stopping the ship setting about a

One of the most interesting arguments that modern apologists makes for the practice of race-based slavery in the Americas is the fact that slavery existed in Africa during that time period and that Africans were complicit in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. What is fascinating about Olaudah Equiano's discussion of the Middle Passage is that, as a man who had been enslaved in Africa prior to being shipped as a slave to the Americas, he was in a unique position to describe slavery in Africa with his introduction to European-influenced slavery in North America. His perception was that the immense brutality of the Middle Passage foreshadowed the dehumanization of slaves in the Americas, which was more inhumane than the treatment he had received as a slave while in Africa. Furthermore, he did not suggest that this brutality was linked to the race of the traders, though that seemed to have been his initial impression, but to the nature of the Trans-Atlantic trade. Therefore, Equiano's writings suggest that shipping Africans across the ocean for slavery was part of the dehumanizing process that helped fuel the practice of slavery in America.

In Olaudah Equiano narrative discusses the many obstacles, struggles which he has to overcome for his path to freedom. Equiano had many difficult problems in his life which many people have taken a special role in. I will discuss about the countless people that had both positive and negative impact in Equiano’s life. Equiano’s life was not an easy one, I will argue despite the many obstacles that came across his life he always remained strong which is why he was able to gain his freedom. I will discuss the major transitions that were made in in his. The unexpected journeys that came in his life and changed it entirely.

The Middle Passage was a triangular route that was frequently used by many European nations who engaged in the Atlantic slave trade of millions of Africans. One such African slave was a man by the name of Olaudah Equiano, who 's autobiography spoke of the mortality rate on slave ships, what he and his fellow slaves thought of their European captors, and what their captors thought of them.

The slave trade, yet horrific in it’s inhumanity, became an important aspect of the world’s economy during the eighteenth century. During a time when thousands of Africans were being traded for currency, Olaudah Equiano became one of countless children kidnapped and sold on the black market as a slave. Slavery existed centuries before the birth of Equiano (1745), but strengthened drastically due to an increasing demand for labor in the developing western hemisphere, especially in the Caribbean and Carolinas. Through illogical justification, slave trading became a powerful facet of commerce, regardless of its deliberate mistreatment of human beings by other human beings. Olaudah Equiano was able to overcome this intense

After surviving their horrendous voyage across the Atlantic, both Equiano and Cuguano experience what it was to sold in a Salve market. Oladuah Equiano arrive in Barbados, after several days they were corral into a yard were at the beat of the drum saw a rush of buyers come to inspect them. He was then sent to Virginia were his name was change to Joseph, and one of his first task was to fan his new master while slept. At his master house’s he was notice by a Lieutenant of the Royal Navy named Michael Henry Pascal and he purchase him for at least thirty pounds. His new name became Gustavus Vassa. He was treated fairly by his new master. He learned how to be a sailor and travel all over the world even Antarctica. Pascal sent his to attend to

During the nineteenth century, slavery was brought to an end in the United States. However, before this time many African slaves were taken from their homeland and stripped from their families to be sold into labor. The increase in supply and demand of crops in the United States increased the need for labor, which led to plantation owners to buy slaves for cheap work. There were no laws during this time that kept men from doing this type of act. Olaudah Equiano was an African slave from Essaka that has experienced many hardships as a slave. He wrote about his life as a slave in his book “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African”. Equiano uses his experiences during slavery to show the type of

Life for Equiano was an emotional roller coaster. He was overwhelmed by turmoil and rejoice as he was separated and reunited with his family, anguish from constant voyages from master to master, satisfied regardless of his particular situation with regard to slavery, and most importantly determined to elucidate society as to what life as a slave was like. Equiano’s experience on African soil was filled with pleasantries and hardships while his experiences on American soil was Equiano’s opportunity for religion and education. Slave owners in Africa were far more accustomed to African ways of life in contrast to the slave owners in America, and although his voyage on the middle passage into European territories left him culture shocked and disgusted with European treatment of slaves, eventually he adjusted to European customs and way of life in America.

A Professor of English at the University of Maryland by the name of Vincent Carretta, specialize in eighteeth-century transatlantic historical and literary studies, believed that Olaudah Equiano being born in Africa was not precise or correct but probably was a slave in South Carolina when he was a child. Carretta believes that Equiano’s memories are images of what stories that he might have read about. Carretta has evidence that contain of baptismal records and other things. The evidence is proof that Olaudah Equiano told

In 1745, Olaudah Equiano was born in Eboe, which is now Nigeria. When he was about eleven years old, he was kidnapped and sold to slave traders heading to the West Indies. Though he spent a short time in the state of Virginia, much of his time in slavery was spent serving the captains of slave ships and British navy vessels. One of his masters, Henry Pascal, the captain of a British trading vessel, gave him the name Gustavas Vassa, which he hardly used throughout his life. Paul Lovejoy, Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History stated:

The romantic period and its literature is solely based off of reform and change. At the time, slavery was very prodominit in the Americas, but the people profiting from their virtues in England were oblivious to the conditions the slaves had to endure. On the other hand, women were fighting their oppressions at home. This was not a case of poor living conditions, like the slaves, but trying to break away from social standards and stereotypes placed upon them. At the time, the main way to get out information and spread a cause was through literature, because it reached the higher, literate classes in society. Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman and The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano both exposed social problems during the romantic

Whether he was born there or as his narrative states, was brought to the colonies and is eventually bought by a Lieutenant in the British navy Michael Pascal for 30 or 40 pounds sterling. As slave and steward to Lt. Pascal, Equiano sailed on HMS Industrious Bee to England. Pascal renamed Equiano Gustavus Vassa after a Swedish freedom fighter protagonist in a banned play by Henry Brooks. Such names were not uncommon as they were ironic and demeaned the slave. Although Equiano originally protested this name, through physical and emotional abuse, he eventually accepted it. This would be his name for the rest of his life.