Credible and Conscience: Equiano's Effective Narrative

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Recommended: Textual analysis of slavery

Olaudah Equiano's "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" is one of the most influential slave narratives to present day society. As one of the first widely read accounts of the slave trade, Equiano's style established an effective form of slave narrative that influenced countless authors, including Frederick Douglass. The language sets up credibility and maintains a tone of honesty rather than sentimentality. Through his use of diction, verb tense, and the consciousness of his target audience, Equiano creates a realistic description of slave life that is both powerful and informative.

Much of Equiano's word choice within the description of the treatment of female slaves creates a type of accountability towards the reader. The use of language such as "depredations", "atrocities", and "abominations.".. "Of the chastity of the female slaves" certainly correlates the horrors the females faced with the hypocrisy of the readers who do not take action to correct these unimaginable injustices. When Equiano describes being "unable to help them" it is intended first to make the reader realize the wrongness of the treatment of these women, but also to see that although Equiano is helpless, they are not. This language is used to inform as well as mobilize a group of people who could help change the situation. "Depredations" points to both destruction and the devastating effects the sexual assaults have on these female slaves. The use of the word chastity ties in the religious factor of need to protect the sexuality of these "females not ten years old." Two other noteworthy points include the way Equiano points out the individuals committing these "cruelties of every kind" as clerks and other whites. The sp...

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...etail-by-detail recollections to the absence of sentimental language that often accompanies works where the author feels strongly about the subject matter. His use of diction simply states the horrors of the rapes and abuses the female slaves suffer though. Implying that these actions are still going on, the verb tense ensures that the reader knows there has been nothing substantial to change the situation and his awareness of his audience is perhaps the most important detail. Equiano was able to write a narrative that reveals the facts of the slave trade. Perhaps he described the wrongness of the slave trade when he said it is "to the disgrace not of Christians only, but of men."

Through his use of diction, verb tense, and the consciousness of his target audience, Equiano creates a realistic description of slave life that is both powerful and informative.

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