Summary Of Olaudah Equiano

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Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was an African that was kidnapped from his home, now known as southeastern Nigeria, and put into the slave trade at age 11 with his younger sister. While enslaved, Equiano worked on multiple slave ships until he was able to buy his freedom in 1766. As a free man he experienced many obstacles, the most significant being getting stolen from. During his time of enslavement and freedom Equiano experienced traveling to many countries, some now known as England, Turkey, and Jamaica. After some time of being free Equiano marries an Englishwoman and becomes a leading figure in the anti-slavery movement. During these times he experiences the brutality to the enslaved, its brutalizing effect upon the enslavers, as well as the religious and economic reasons. Olaudah Equiano represents a number of arguments against slavery, but the most convincing of the three to an eighteenth century European audience would be the brutality to the enslaved (Equiano). Equiano experienced the brutality to the enslaved first hand. After he gained his freedom he became the leading figure of the anti-slavery movement working to abolish slavery all over the world. “This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and …show more content…

The middle passage refers to the trans-Atlantic journey that brought slaves from Africa to the Americas. The length of the voyage was 60-90 days with horrific conditions on ships and a slave mortality rate of 50%. Between the 16th and 19th centuries there was about 10-11 million Africans that came to the Americas. European slave owners saw it cheaper to work slaves to death and buy new ones than to pay for their upkeep (Scofield, 9/19/2016). These are all examples of what enslaved Africans went through and how they were thought of (Scofield,

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