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Brief Summary: The Life Of Olaudah Equiano's Life

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Many slaves lived terrible lives, but Equiano’s life was different. Equiano was abducted at a young age and became a slave. Throughout the years of being a slaves he was treated very nicely and became a very valuable slave to his masters. Equiano then paid for his freedom and became a free man. Equiano was overly attached to his masters because he was treated better than most slaves.
When slaves get treated better than the rest they became attached to their masters. Due to the fact, Equiano was treated better by his masters, he grew love towards them. Due to the different treatment, Equiano received he became attached. To further support this in The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano wrote: “began to consider myself as happily situated; for my master treated me always extremely well; and my attachment and gratitude to him were very great” (Equiano 50). Since Equiano was treated so differently from other slaves he developed a greater connection with his master. When Equiano's master was going to leave him, he cried. In The Life of …show more content…

As Equiano's master passed away and equiano was given his freedom. In the life of olaudah Equiano, Equiano states: “Indeed I had every reason in the world to be attached to him… I verily believed I should have not obtained my freedom when I did” (Equiano 106). In reasoning Equiano believed he was not worthy of the freedom he was denied because of the relationship he had with his master. In proving this he also said “every man on board loved him, and regretted his death; but I was exceedingly affected at it, and found that I did not know, till he was gone…”. He believed he did not deserve his master. Equiano thought that as a slave he should not have been treated well and gotten his freedom. The reason he was very attached to his master was because his master gave him his freedom when he thought he did not deserve it because he was a

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In the documents “Considering the Evidence: Voices from the Slave Trade” it shows how the Atlantic slave trade was an enormous enterprise and enormously significant in modern world history. In document 15.1 - The Journey to Slavery it talks about the voice of an individual victim of the slave trade known as Olaudah Equiano. Equiano was taken from his home and sold into the slave trade. He worked for three different families while in the slave trade but what is different about him is that he learned to read and write while being a slave. He traveled extensively as a seaman aboard one of his masters' ships, and was allowed to buy his freedom in 1766.

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The mental health of the slaves, which was so evidently tarnished, was completely disregarded by these people. Riggs’ detail of each slave’s face shows the anguish and torture that each one is going through. The reader could also imagine this through the imagery that is displayed throughout Equiano’s narrative. One example of this is when Equiano described the lower deck of the second ship he was on. He stated that “the shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole scene of horror almost inconceivable” (697).

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One interesting, yet saddening, fact we learn is how his name changed from the proud name his family had given him, to one that was from the Bible: "In this place, I was called Jacob; but on board the African snow I was called Michael." (Page 93) From this chapter itself, we learn that the appearance of the Atlantic World to a colored outsider is something to be feared. Not only were they forced into slavery, but also the conditions that they had to survive in were atrocious. Equiano doesn 't discuss the journey to the Atlantic World as an adventure, but more as a fearful reminder that nothing would ever be the same as it was once being. On the other hand, we are given the example of Black Robe.

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King gave Equiano permission to get his papers from the Register Office to obtain his freedom. Equiano was overcome with happiness, got his papers and hurried back to obtain King’s signature. King signed the papers and gave Equiano his freedom (Equiano, 101). Equiano wrote, “so that, before night, I who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, now became my own master, and completely free” (Equiano, 102). Although Equiano was now free, he knew that life was harder for a free black man.

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In this novel both of these men tell their stories and give us an insight on how their lives were living in slavery. Their narratives go into detail on how they were treated, what they saw, and what their own experiences were trying to escape. Olaudah Equiano

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Equiano experienced the worst situation when his sister and him were taken as slaves. He was separated from his sister after being captured, and he never had the chance to see her again after that. As slave he used other names such as Gustavus Vassa which was given by British and American masters. He used that name for his book called “Equiano’s Travels : The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African” (Perkins 162). He fought to end slavery after writing his first African-American slave narrative and autobiography.

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17.1 Captivity and Enslavement, Olaudah Equiano, the interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano written by himself 1. What are Equiano’s impressions of the white men on the ship and their treatment of the slaves? How does this treatment reflect the slave traders’ primary concerns? Equiano’s first impression of these white men is a feeling of uncertainty and sorrow for the future. As his story goes on Equiano is afraid of these white men, but also he is wishing to end it all because of the conditions and treatment of the slaves.

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Olaudah was a very well-articulated man in his autobiography and he had many thoughts expressed as an enslaved man towards the colonies and Philadelphia. Olaudah Equiano has been enslaved for many years after being taken from his homeland of Essaka. He wasn’t always in Philadelphia or in the colonies because of his master’s travels to many diverse places like the West Indies, Pennsylvania, London, England, Georgia, Louis borough Caribbean, and South Carolina. Olaudah was a very vigilant man in seeing the condition and treatment of his fellow brethren slaves in different places around the world. The more he saw the unkind treatment of slaves, the more and more he detests it.

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For example, when he told of his arrival in Virginia when he was the last of his group left at a plantation with no one to talk to and no way to understand those around him. To the British readers, who thrived in their own daily social interactions, the thought of such a lonely situation created feelings of pity and understanding. Equiano thought that he was “worse off than any of the rest” of his companions and “was constantly grieving and pining,” because of his loneliness. The British readers related to his emotional distress and allowed themselves to see him as a person. Therefore, they were more open to his ideas on slavery as a whole, because they could relate to Equiano's

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In Equiano's personal slave narrative, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", Equiano flips the idea that the African people are backwards and barbaric, thus ripe for slavery, by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that it is truly the white people who are backwards and barbaric through their own hypocrisy. This reversal that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people exists as a misconception and makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish slavery and any inequality present. On page seventy-eight, Equiano uses first person pronouns like 'I', 'my', and 'me' to separate himself from the other African people and whites around him. This separation that Equiano creates demonstrates his exceptionalism as an African slave.

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Olaudah Equiano and Frederick Douglass, both experienced the hardship of enslavement at a youthful age. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they both wrote narratives explaining the lives they experienced as slaves or expressed the lives slaves lived. During this time period, slaves experienced miserable lifestyles, along with unforgettable scarring moments forced upon them by their commanders. Although they lived in different time periods, both of their narratives about the life of slavery to freedom have similar and dissimilar details. Their personal first-handed narratives presented to the world the harsh treatment slaves endured and the weakness they must show to survive.

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Coming to Europe did not only give Equiano freedom from slavery but also a Christian faith. However, his belief was not easy but just simple accepted the mercy of the almighty God, the humiliation of Lord Jesus Christ and God’s love to hear his prayer for someone who is sinful living man. First and for most, Equiano said “I began seriously to reflect on the dangers I had escaped, particularly those of my last voyage, which made a lasting impression on my mind, and, by the grace of God, proved afterwards a mercy to me; it caused me to reflect deeply on my eternal state, and to seek the Lord with full purpose of heart ere it was too late. I rejoiced greatly; and heartily thanked the Lord for directing me to London, where I was determined to work

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He belonged to an affluent and prosperous family in which his father was a well-reverenced man in the community who made decisions for the village. His father had many slaves as well but Equiano denoted that these slaves were treated like family as compared to the evil system of slavery that Europeans controlled. In Equiano’s society, everyone collaborated and the land flourished. The land was fruitful and benevolent, the soil was opulent and agriculture was productive. Many crops were cultivated, and everyone had a concrete part in society such as women spinning cotton and making garments.

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When possible, Equiano feeds his thirst for religious and educational knowledge. Spending the majority of his life both as a slave and as a free man overseas in a series of dangerous voyages throughout the Mediterranean, Atlantic and West Indian Oceans he believed the kindness shown by Pascal, coupled with his years of service was to secure his freedom. Until Pascal had him seized and forced onto a barge where he was later sold to Captain James Doran, bound for the West Indies. With his knew found knowledge, Equiano argues with Captain Doran, explaining to his new master that Pascal "could not sell me to him, nor to anyone else . . . I have served him . . .

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Equiano was then sold into the Atlantic slave trade. At the beginning of his new slave life, Equiano described one point that the treatment he was receiving made him forget that he was a slave (702). One moment Olaudah’s life was running quite smoothly within the slave world, but then he got sold and his world turned upside down. “The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding

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