Equiano And Slavery Essay

Slavery is, and was at the time, the most troubling aspect of the European project in the New World. The conquest and slaughter of the indigenous people was terrible, but not entirely out of step with the war-mongering values of 16th century Europe. But the importation of kidnapped people to create a permanent sub-class of chattel slaves to live and work among the colonists as livestock – that was ethically problematic for many right from the start. From the beginning of the British Colonies in North America through the US Civil War the “peculiar institution”, as it was known, created a moral dissonance for many whites. This is especially true after the founding of the United States upon a principle of liberty and equality. From the

He seems to be searching for his place, a metaphorical home, in the world of Europeans. On board a ship in the British Isles he recalls that he “soon enjoyed (himself) pretty well, and felt tolerably easy in (his) present situation” (p.50). No sooner had he started to enjoy himself when “one day, for the diversion of those gentlemen, all the boys were called on the quarter-deck…and then made to fight (p.50). Equiano then sees naval battle, goes to London where his masters sisters, “very admirable ladies who took much notice and great care of (him)” (p.51), goes to the hospital and almost loses a leg, and recovers – all this on one page. This praise for the sisters of his owner in whose service he just nearly died, without any bitterness, is representative of the tone of most of this narrative. The equanimity with which young Equiano suffers these slings and arrows is almost as disconcerting as the outrages themselves. Perhaps this is the intended response. His readers would have felt embarrassed by their trivial sufferings. Equiano details the horrors of slavery in the West Indies and blithely recounts his own Tintinesque adventures until he is back in Britain and becomes involved in the project of returning slaves to Africa. By this point Equiano has so thoroughly assimilated that he no longer associates as an

Of course, he does not see them as the enemy and never did. Or at least he doesn’t let on. He isn’t an Uncle Tom, he is a Dr. Lustig.

The concept of even home is more central to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in fact, it is right there in the title. The cabin refers to the abode of the hero of the story, Uncle Tom, a slave on the Shelby farm. He is fond of his master and lives in Christian rectitude with his spouse Aunt Chloe and as pater familias to the other slaves on the farm. Similarly to Equiano, he is cast out of his happy home when he is sold to another slave holder to repay a debt. This sends the long suffering Tom on an odyssey from one bad situation to another, always yearning to return to his beloved