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Summary the interesting narrative of olaudah equiano
Slavery in world history
Summary the interesting narrative of olaudah equiano
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Olaudah Equiano In this week’s assignment I choose to write about Olaudah Equiano was born if Africa. He was kidnapped when he was around eleven years old and sold into slavery. He eventually was freed and supported Great Britain in the fight to end slavery. There have been statements made that he was not born in Africa but born here in South Carolina. This could change how people see his memoir when they read it. The question has been asked if Olaudah Equiano birth place was not Africa but indeed South Carolina do you think it would change the way we read the memoir. In my opinion I think it would change how we see the story play out. We have learned not all stories in history are true but if this was not true then I would think Olaudah
He was strongly attached to his mother and clenched to her as much as possible. His father obtained many slaves himself, but treated them like an equal part of the family. Equiano lived a common life in African society, until one day his destiny took an unexpected turn for the worst and life would never be the same. At the tender age of 11 Olaundah
While reading An Account of the Life of Mr. David George from Sierra Leone, Africa, Given by Himself, and Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, a Black Preacher, Written by Himself, nothing appeared to be majorly contrasting between the two documents. Both included an enslaved, and deeply religious, African American man who survived the American Revolution and ended up settling in Sierra Leone for the last bit of his life. However, after reading these two documents for the nth time, a few key differences appeared within the information hidden in the titles of the documents and the diction in which each man recounted his journey.
Olaudah Equiano claims that his sister and him were kidnapped in Africa and brought to the colonies at the
Olaudah Equiano in his Interesting Narrative is taken from his African home and thrown into a Western world completely foreign to him. Equiano is a slave for a total of ten years and endeavors to take on certain traits and customs of Western thinking. He takes great pains to improve himself, learn religion, and adopt Western mercantilism. However, Equiano holds on to a great deal of his African heritage. Throughout the narrative, the author keeps his African innocence and purity of intent; two qualities he finds sorely lacking in the Europeans. This compromise leaves him in a volatile middle ground between his adapted West and his native Africa. Olaudah Equiano takes on Western ideals while keeping several of his African values; this makes him a man associated with two cultures but a member of neither.
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
Wilson does a very great job to make sure that both sides, Black and White audience can benefit from Ma Rainey’s untold story, however, question who would benefit the most from viewing this play? Ultimately, I believe that both audience would benefit from viewing it. With a black audience it would beneficial to see the effects of racial decimation which caused their over usage of ‘Nigger’ by band members and Ma Rainy and self hatred. Examples can be seen here from Levee and Slow Drag.
Slavery was a practice throughout the American colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries, and through slavery, African-American slaves helped build the economic foundation of which America stands upon today, but this development only occurred with the sacrifice of the blood, sweat, and tears from the slaves that had been pushed into exhaustion by the slave masters. A narrative noting a lifetime of this history was the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African written by Olaudah Equiano. Equiano was a prominent African involved in the British movement for the abolition of the slave trade. He was captured and enslaved as a child in his home town of Essaka in what is now known as south eastern Nigeria, later he was shipped to the West Indies, he then moved to England, and eventually purchased his freedom (Equiano). Olaudah Equiano, with many other millions of slaves, faced many hardships and was treated with inconceivable injustices by white slave masters and because of the severity of these cruel and barbarous occurrences, history will never forget these events.
"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 American Narrative includes a number of incidents throughout American history, which have shaped the nation into what it is today. One of the significant issues that emerged was slavery, and the consequent emancipation of the slaves, which brought much confusion regarding the identification of these new citizens and whether they fit into the American Narrative as it stood. In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B Dubois introduces the concept of double consciousness as “the sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others” (Dubois 3). This later became the standard for describing the African-American narrative because of the racial identification spectrum it formed. The question of double consciousness is whether African-Americans can identify themselves as American, or whether the African designation separates them from the rest of society. President Barack Obama and Booker T. Washington, who both emerged as prominent figures representing great social change and progress for the African-American race in America, further illustrate the struggle for an identity.
Equiano finally gains his liberty and begins to develop his character as he converts his religion and becomes a faithful man. Equiano immerses himself and is allowed to blend into Western society. Works Cited Equiano, Olaudah. [1789] 1987. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African.
In a debate in 1851, famed abolitionist Wendell Phillips presented a moving and forceful argument for acceptance of African Americans into the military by telling the story of the Haitian general, Toussaint-Louverture. Phillips' message survives today, over a century later, not only as a tribute to the hero who rose from slavery to create the first black republic, but also as a compelling statement against racial discrimination. Expertly using a mix of literary devices, including juxtaposition, irony, metaphor, and personification, Phillips enables his audience to see, through the lens of the orator's mind, the ideals that he promotes.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Edited by Angelo Costanzo. Orchard Park, NY: Broadway Literary Texts, 2004.
Equiano way of slavery is differently than that of Jacobs. Equaino was taken from his homeland of Africa. He was apart of what is known as the Middle Passage which was considered a deadly voyage for many slaves that were apart of this voyage across the Atlantic. After his arrival, he experience the hard labor. Jacobs, who was born into slavery was already born in what was considered the "New America". Equiano way of telling his narratives was in more of a chronological way with vivid description of what he was being faced with everyday. Jacobs not only told what slavery was like for her, but also provide more emotion than that of Equiano. She gave stories of others like slave that was previously own by Dr. Flint and fathering of other slave 's children. Unlike Equiano, he was given his other name of Gustavus Vassa by his master, Jacobs wrote her narrative under the name of Linda Bendt and changed names of others in her narrative in order to protect the reputation of those . Although Equiano talks about what woman 's went through during slavery, it was Jacobs he gave more of an in-depth of it with dealing with lust from a master and only being known as the property of her master and her master only. Both authors expressed in their own way that once you fall into slavery, you lose sense of who you are and the morals you were brought up
When Equiano had reached the age of forty-four he wrote and published his autobiography, The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Written by Himself, which he entered at Stationer's Hall, located in London, in 1789. Following, after a little over two centuries, his work is accepted as one of the first works written in English by a former slave. As well as "the paradigm" (www.babylon.com) of a slave narrative. Equiano recalled his childhood in an Igbo village formerly in northeast Nigeria. There he was embellished in the tradition of the "greatest warriors." He is thought of as a unique figure in his remembrance of traditional African life before the coming of the slave trade that took place in Europe. During his life, he traveled through the Americas, Turkey, and the Mediterranean. He also was involved in a major war/battle during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War).