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Captivity Vs Equiano

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As we look at America today, we see a free, democratic nation that is a world power to be reckoned with. Although, before the fame and the glory, America had many struggles that the country and people had to deal with. I chose A Narrative of the Captivity by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Story of the life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano as my two pieces that I feel best represents the American experiences and struggles of the early colonial period. These two pieces best represent the struggles because they both deal with being a newcomer to a foreign country and greeting people not of the same language or culture. As a result, they represent the struggles of being a newcomer to early colonial America. A Narrative of the Captivity really represents the struggles of America because it shows the adversities the colonists dealt with when they started encountering the Native Americans. This piece was really about a woman that has baby …show more content…

Although, back then was a completely different story. The Interesting Story of the life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano shows not only the struggles of being a newcomer in America, but also the difficulties he had to persevere coming over. Slaves were considered property, and not humans, so they often received harsh treatment which sometimes even were serious injuries or death. “While we forgot our misfortunes in the joy of being together, but even that small comfort was soon to have an end”, Olaudah says and he is one of the many slave siblings that were torn apart by the selling and buying of slaves (Jefferson 57). This had to be devastating for him and his sister because not only are they thousands of miles away from home and family, but they were also torn from the little family they had left. All in all, Olaudah’s story represents the struggles of a newcomer to America in an acute way because he really, in a way, has lost everything he has ever

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