The Life Of Olaudah Equiano Analysis

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In the Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African written by Himself, Equiano recounts his experiences both as an enslaved and freed person. After examining and critically thinking about the way in which Equiano writes his book, it is safe to say that Equiano wrote it to promote anti-slavery because the book was able to influence others to take action to promote the anti-slave trade. Additionally, there has been a controversy about his birthplace. An article published by Jennifer Howard titled “Unraveling the Narrative” talks about Mr. Carretta who “revealed” that Equiano was in fact born in South Carolina. This controversy brings to question whether or not one should believe Equiano’s book. In my opinion …show more content…

The issues he talks about in his book are issues that happened to an entire population. In short, this paper will show the powerful indictment of slavery, passages that provoke emotional responses from the readers and the controversy of his birth place.
Even though Equiano might not have said it directly in his book, being able to write this book shows the most powerful indictment of slavery. From the start, the purpose of the book is to inspire others to stop the system of slavery. He states, “If then the following narrative does not appear sufficiently interesting to engage general attention, let my motive to some excuse for its publication” (Equiano, 2). Because Equiano was able to write the book, it gave him the opportunity to talk about the system of slavery. He took full advantage to inspire people he knew and the public to tell them the system of slavery is wrong. He also felt that it is …show more content…

She talks about one of the authors named Carretta who presented evidence he found in public records that Equiano was born in South Carolina (Howard, VI, 1). This then brings to question his childhood memories back in the west coast of Africa. In the same article, Howard claims that the description of the middle passage is the closest thing that Equiano describes. In thinking of this, yes he might have lied about his birth place, but he did for a good reason. He had the chance to expose the evil side of the middle passage, so he did so in ways to that would influence others to take action against the middle passage and the system of slavery as a whole. After all, his descriptions of the middle passage were accurate. If scholars are concerned about the teaching of history, why not attack the history of America as a whole and all the holidays that are celebrated, such as Columbus Day? Columbus did not discover the Americas – the Native people were living there long before he came along. It’s not until college that some of these issues are talked about. Therefore, scholars need to attack the real, big issues. Time and time again history is being modified in even today’s

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