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Describe the life and influence of olaudah equiano
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Olaudah Equiano, whose identity was denied by many, yet stayed true to his word no matter how much criticism was thrown in his way. Through the trials and tribulations of his journey from the Eboe tribe to the West Indies, then on to Europe due to slave ownership, Equiano fought for freedom and found peace in the word of God. Due to many different cultures and the intrigued interest in European society, Equiano learned to read and write in English. The author portrays the experiences that occurred to him during his life time. In the narrative we read about slavery, the observation of his fellow tribe members turning their backs on friends by selling them into the slave trade for guns, and not to mention the horrific scenes he observed which …show more content…
This soon transitions into his birthplace of Eboe in 1745. The people of Eboe valued law and marriage. The nation’s attire was modest, manners were highly valued, and the thing most appreciated as a luxury was perfume. The profession was agriculture was the most popular profession for the Eboe people. He employs to the readers to get rid of all prejudice against Africans based on the color of the skin. Since the Africans had no knowledge of the European language, past, or rituals you cannot base their intelligence and think of them as a lesser entity. As mentioned “understanding is not confined to feature or color." Equiano gets captured along with his sister, eventually were separated but fate brought them back together again. Scared to death, he enters the slave ship heading towards the West Indies. He arrived at Barbados where the shipment was to be sold. Equiano was then moved from the West Indies to Virginia because no one purchased him at the time. He worked on a farm and was distressed, spontaneously Captain Pascal purchases him and is sent out towards England. During this voyage he is scared out of his wits for the coming journey. As he arrives in England he begins to form a strong bond with
During 1766, Olaudah Equiano learnt to read the bible and seen amazement at the exact laws and rules his country, Nigeria, have always abided by. After becoming baptized, Equiano identified himself with the Christian abolitionists in England and began to write his first autobiography about Ibo religion. Equiano elaborates on how Christianity correlates with the African descent and its culture. In his passage, he describes the similarities between the Jews and the Africans—from circumcision to offerings, from purifications to washings, from believing in one Creator to life after death.
He finally settled with a family who made brought him close to the happiness his biological family gave, but to only be torn away. He describes the horror and the torture not able to his see the world that he loved so dearly anymore. Saying farewell to the people who spoke his language, looked like him, and obtained many of the same traditions as his tribe. Equiano was now embarking on a brand new adventure. Being used to the slavery of his own world made his life somewhat bearable; being shipped off to another existence, seeing many unfamiliar faces, is a different story.
Both, “The Interesting Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano” and “Amistad” are important stories about slavery in pre-civil war america because they both address the issues of slavery. These gentlemen in the story made a difference in the slave trade. In “The life of Olaudah Equiano”, Olaudah was sold on a slave ship that came to the Barbados. Olaudah worked for his freedom, and in the end became efficient in American language. He worked his way to the free life and in the end it worked out for him, although it leaves scars on his soul. In “Amistad”, Cinque is a slave that leads a revolt on a slave ship after escaping. When they get to america, Baldwin, a lawyer that is representing the slave and the former president Adams helps free the slaves.
Equiano was the youngest of his brothers who enjoyed playing outside throwing javelins enjoying the normal life of a small child. At the beginning of the day, the elders would leave their children at home while they went out into the fields to work. While they were gone, some of the children would get together to play but always took precautions of potential kidnappers. Even with all these precautions, people were still seized from their homes and taken away. Equiano was home one day with his little sister tending to the everyday household needs when out of nowhere they were captured by a couple men who had gotten over the walls. They had no time to resist or scream for help before they found themselves bound, gagged, and being taken away. Equiano had no idea where these people were taking him and they didn’t stop once until nightfall where they stayed until dawn. He tells us about how they traveled for many days and nights not having any clue where they were going or when they would get there. Slaves traveled by land and by sea, but Equiano’s journey was by sea. He tells us how he was carried aboard and immediately chained to other African Americans that were already on the ship. Once the ship halted on land, Equiano along with many other slaves were sent to the merchant’s yard where they would be herded together and bought by the
Document One The Journey to Slavery is about the life of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano was born in what is now Nigeria in 1745. At the age of 11 Equiano and his younger sister were taken from their home, drug though the woods, sold, and was then separated from one another. Equiano’s experience was considered very rare. Throughout his life as a slave he had three different owners. Equiano went from one master to the other till he ended up in a pleasant country in the hands of a leader with children and two wives. He describes how his owners treated him like he was part of the family. They spoke he same
He describes the ways in which he was considered fortunate amongst other slaves. Equiano confessed that all of his masters were “worthy and humane”, they treated him right and even gave him the gift of literacy and religion (709). He compares his experience to the experience of other less fortunate individuals, and finds that treating slaves in a kinder manner actually benefits the slave owners (Equiano 709). Equiano states that the slaves under more solicitous masters “were uncommonly cheerful and healthy, and did more work” (709). Furthermore, he mentions how many malevolent slave owners would have to replace their slaves very often in order to make up for the amount of slaves that would die due to the harsh and unhealthy conditions that the slaves were put in (709). Equiano does all of this in order to try and reason with his audience in a more efficient way. Equiano realized that trying to convince his audience that slavery was completely wrong would not work due to the very strong views on it in his time. Instead he tries to convince his audience to change the manner in which they treat their slaves in order to benefit themselves, which consequently would benefit the slaves and contribute to their
This would lead him to a fantasy about what life would have been life back in Africa based on freedom. Equiano longed for freedom and suffered a traumatic experience (being enslaved) at a young age which may lead him to romanticize a different life. He believed that he would find his paradise in Africa. This can lead to a more favorable and positive view of Africa. He paints Africa as a place free of harm making him an unreliable source. By juxtaposing his freedom in Africa with his captivity in the colonies; he creates a biased image of his respective homeland. His reliability is questioned because he has no previous knowledge about life in Africa and only knows how it is described to him. His romanticized version of Africa gives a dynamic in his writing that negative towards the
Equiano’s fortune landed him in the hands of a wealthy widow who purchased him from the traders who had kidnapped him. He lived the life as a companion to the widow and her son. Luck was on his side in this transaction, many slave owners frowned upon educating and assisting slaves. “Masters” typically feared an educated slave would take measures to make a change. He explains, though, how he held status above other slave under the widow’s ownership, “There were likewise slaves daily to attend us, while my young master and I,...
Samuels, Wilfred D. “Olaudah Equiano.” Encyclopedia of African-American Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2007. 170-171. Print.
The story of Olaudah Equiano and his people went through a lot throughout the time of the 18th Century. Africans faced, “the part of Africa, known by the name of Guinea, to which the trade for slaves is carried on, extends along the coast above 3400 miles, from the Senegal to Angola, and includes a variety of kingdoms.” This is where it first started the business of slavery and selling and buying slaves for them to work for their owners. During this time men and women had to face different types of punishment from adultery and other types of reasons to put them to death, execution, but if the woman had a baby they were often spared to stay with their child. African’s displayed there different types of traditions through weddings, friends, public
Equiano’s first major event marked in his life was when he and his sister were kidnapped from their country with the kidnapper’s intent of selling them as slaves. This was not an uncommon event for the children knew to be on the lookout for a “kidnapper, that might come upon us; for they sometimes took those opportunities of our parents' absence to attack and carry off as many as they could seize” (Equiano 128). Equiano and the populace of his country all lived with the fear of a child being taken from their home to never find their friends and family ever again. The kidnappings that occurred in Africa were wrong and noth...
"The Life of Olaudah Equiano” is a captivating story in which Equiano, the author, reflects on his life from becoming a slave to a freeman during the 19th century. Through his experiences and writing, Equiano paints a vivid picture of the atrocities and cruelties of European slavery. Ultimately through his narrative, Equiano intends to persuade his audience, the British government, to abolish the Atlantic slave trade as well as alert them of the harsh treatment of slaves. He successfully accomplishes his goal by subtly making arguments through the use of character, action, and setting.
The narrative of Olaudah Equiano is truly a magnificent one. Not only does the reader get to see the world through Equiano's own personal experiences, we get to read a major autobiography that combined the form of a slave narrative with that of a spiritual conversion autobiography. Religion may be viewed as at the heart of the matter in Equiano's long, remarkable journey. Through Equiano's own experiences, the reader uncovers just how massive a role religion played in the part of his Narrative and in that of his own life. More specifically, we learn of how his religious conversion meant a type of freedom as momentous as his own independence from slavery. As one reads his tale, one learns just how dedicated he his to that of his Christian faith; from his constant narration of the scriptures to the way that Equiano feels a growing sense of empowerment from the biblical texts for the oppressed community. However, at the same time, one may question Equiano's own Christian piety. Did Equiano really seek to tell the tale of his soul's spiritual journey, did he really believe God would set him free or was he simply using religion as a ways of manipulating British and American readers to accept him as a credible narrator. Regardless of which of these facts is true, religion is quite possibly the defining feature of his life story.
Equiano was the embodiment of politicized transition from oral to literature culture. After a forceful removal from Africa, Equiano found himself in West indie as a slave, he then had to adapt to the new culture and system of expression. Having come from a society where information and power was associated with oral expression, he quickly found out that in this new land reading and writing are the empowering tool with which an African can free himself. The conflict between the two cultures is depicted in Equiano’s first contact with a book, where he wrote of how he was often curious whenever he saw his master reading a book, and he was eager to talk to the book as he thought the books were eager to talk to him (Equiano 69)
In the Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano starts right out in the beginning with his story. He starts out with introducing his life as a free African. This could be seen as part of his narrative plot to show the reader how happy he was in his homeland. After the introduction, there is then the story of his life as a slave. This is where sympathetic tactics are initiated of how he was abducted and taken to a different country. There was even a line that hit the emotions of all dead on. He questions that, “ O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” (Equiano 209). That simple line phrased the entire meaning of what a slave narrative was. He sought out the sympathy of others by using religion to captivate and then motivate them to support slaves having rights like other humans. During this time, religion was a very big entity. She was able to call out the slave masters on their hypocrisy in their religion. She was pointing out the facts saying one thing while doing the other. This is one of the most powerful w...