Olaudah Equiano Reflection

Olaudah Equiano was an extraordinary person that lived in a time that stifled personal freedom, views, and aspirations all because of one simple notion: skin color. Even with living in this oppressive time period, Equiano persevered and experienced many things in his life that not many people of his skin color, let alone white people, could say they have. In his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Equiano goes in to detail about his life and experiences, starting with a detailed explanation of his homeland and its people, and then talks about his journeys highlighting how he and his brethren were treated on both sides of the Atlantic and also detailing his education. Even

After his sister and him were kidnapped from their village by slave traders from a different land and separated, Equiano was eventually sold to a wealthy master who treated him with the utmost respect. This seemed to be the case that the general treatment of slaves in Africa during this time is that they are treated much less like animals and more just like lower class citizens. Even before being sold to his wealthy master, when he tried to run away from his previous master instead of being beaten or reprimanded, that master helped him recover from lack of food and sleep

Such as learning to read and write, learning how to dress properly, learning how do hair, learning about Christianity, learning how to sail, etc. In general slaves, in America and the West Indies especially, were never allowed to buy their freedom because their masters did not allow them such privileges to do other jobs that allowed them to make money. In this sense, Equiano was extremely fortunate to have masters that (for the most part) treated him very fairly and allowed him to eventually save up enough money to buy his freedom that he so dearly wanted all of his life. To conclude, Equiano was an extremely fortunate and persevering person to have been able to experience all he had in his life and to be able to pass on his knowledge to others, especially through writing his autobiography. Through his hard work, and luck of being treated fairly compared to many of his brethren, he was able to eventually buy his freedom and live the life he always wanted. Which allowed him to spread his knowledge of how bad slavery was from his own experiences and to add to the eventual demise of