American Authors: Building Character One Sentence at a Time

Most of today's writers get their inspiration from other writers, whether it be present day authors or primitive. All of them have their own style of writing for their stories. Today we mostly see books about sparkling vampires and paranormal stories involving teenagers who investigate the issue. Back then, the stories had more of a meaning. Some of the stories were about the government, society, or their own personal life. Most of today's stories do not have a real meaning behind their stories, unlike the stories Olaudah Equiano, Anne Bradstreet, Jonathon Edwards, Patrick Henry, and William Bryant wrote. Each of these writers had their own writing approach and plot. However, there are writers who still write like Equiano, Bradstreet, Edwards, Henry, and Bryant. They were influenced by the famous authors I listed beforehand. These new authors have paved the way for present and future writers.

Olaudah Equiano was an African American who wrote about the hardships he endured as a slave. Equiano was kidnapped and sold into slavery when he was eleven years old. He was very intelligent for a slave with no education. Olaudah encountered other hardships, like losing touch with his family and home life. He lost his sister quite a few times during his term as a slave, also. He saved up his money during his time of being a slave and eventually bought his own slaveryBefore Equiano bought his freedom, he acquired a skill for seamanship and traveled long distances. He was trained by his slave owner who was a captain at sea.

Equiano documented his life by a journal. In his journal, titled “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa,” he had daily entries that described what was happening during his time ...

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...ar would have never happened, we would not have liberty or a fully functioning government. We would also be void of free trade. Patrick Henry helped form the basis for today's society.

All of these people have been extremely important to today's character. Each person has played a role in government and writing. They have all formed a basis for whatever they were working on. Without the ideas of government from Henry, we would have a different political system all together. Anne Bradstreet and William Cullen Bryant have helped piece together poetry. Anne and Jonathon catapulted religious views. Bradstreet and Equiano helped people understand that not everyone leads a perfectly happy life and many were mistreated. Olaudah Equiano was vastly important to the abolition of slavery. We have all of them to thank for the society, government, and literature we have today.