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Equiano Equaino Olaudah: A Life Of A Slave

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Recommended: A quick context about the transatlantic slave trade during 18 th century

Equiano’s narrative not only opens doors to ending slavery, but gives us some clear insight about the many struggles the slaves endure. “Equaino Olaudah was born in the mid-1700s, in the tribe of Ibo in the village of Essaka (Benin) from the kingdom of Benin which is southeastern Nigeria, West Africa”. According to the author, “Equiano was captured by black slave raider at age 11or 12, then he and his sister were kidnapped. After he and his sister were kidnapped, they were separated, he spent months in the administration of a dark ruler, whose treatment of him was mellow compared and the ruthlessness of the British slave merchants to whom he was sold before long. “He was taken to Barbados in West Indies by the slave merchants, however, he was not sold there, the traders took him to America, he was bought by a Virginia plantation owner in America”. Equiano was sold to the British Royal Navy officer who was either a captain or lieutenant, he renamed Equiano Gustavus Vassa, he was named after the Swedish King and a freedom fighter of the sixteen- century. “Equiano worked for the officer as a personal helper or a ship overseer, and he usually traveled with the officer to so many countries and colonies on the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean”. “Many of the white seamen that were good and friendly helped educate him, …show more content…

In 1762, he was sold to a West Indian broker, who sold him to Robert King, a Philadelphia Quaker and vendor. “Lord showed him about seagoing business undertakings and permitted him enough available time to work at different endeavors to gain enough cash to buy his flexibility”. “In July 10,1766, Equiano had worked hard to keep enough money to buy his freedom as well as to begin a business of his own, “working on commercial vessels and occasional scientific expeditions to Central America and the Arctic

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Collin Thornton 11/17/16 Pg. 113 Final Draft Two Personal Accounts of Exploration and Settlements The two selections that give the most complete picture of this historical period are The General History of Virginia and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. In the early 1600s, Captain John Smith found himself in a precarious situation, the failing Virginia colony. Likewise, Olaudah Equiano was put in a difficult situation as he faced many atrocities on the slave ship at the hands of the slave traders and owners.

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These stories are quite different; Equiano was sold, Smith was adopted, and Equino was aboard the ship throughout the story, Smiths story went everywhere he went in the new world and a small portion of his voyage there. Even though both stories are their first hand-experiences,

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289 Words | 2 Pages

According to PBS Africans in America, after Equinao bought his freedom he became an active abolitionist in England. Olaudah Equiano’s descriptions of the middle passage severed a purpose for

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In 1757, he was purchased by a naval commander for about £40, who named him Gustavas Vassa. Equiano was around 12 when he initially touched base in England. For part of that time he remained at Blackheath in London with the Guerin family. It is here that Equiano learnt how to read and write and to do

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Part of that time he stayed at Blackheath in London with the Guerin family, relatives of Captain Pascal who bought Equiano, where at this point he learned to was read and write. Equiano then had to be put on the middle passage on a slave ship to the New World, which was the western hemisphere, after he was shipped from Barbados. This isn’t the only traveling he did. In 1763 which Equiano was approximately 18, he was sold by Captain Pascal to Captain James Duran and taken to Montserrat in the Caribbean Islands. He was then sold to the island's most primary merchant, Robert King.

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133 Words | 1 Pages

Olaudah Equiano arrived at the coast where he first saw the sea and a slave ship. He was carried onto the slave ship where he felt that bad spirits were around and the people there wanted to kill him. Equiano was generally fearful of everything on the ship, especially when he noticed that the crew looked and spoke differently than was used to. Horrors of the ship overpowered Equiano and he fainted on the deck. After awakening, Equiano realized that he has no change of returning to his native country.

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Equiano was nearly kidnapped into being a slave while loading a ship to

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While Equiano's narrative shows the terrible conditions that he and his fellow Africans had to endure on the ship, Columbus’s journal has a very different cover. As opposed to Equiano's picture, Columbus’s journal shows he and his crew landing on an island in the Caribbean claiming land for spain triumphantly. This obviously shows two very different objectives in the stories. Emotion can be effected with the words we use as well, in Equiano's narrative there is an

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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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Both Rowlandson and Equiano were captured for the financial gain of the captors: the Native Americans held Rowlandson for ransom to be able to obtain much-need food and supplies (“Mary Rowlandson” 38) while Equiano was sold as a slave for financial gain by his captors and owners. Both captives were separated from their families; interestingly, both had a female relative (a daughter for Mary Rowlandson and a sister for Olaudah Equiano) who was also a captive and with whom they were reunited at least for a time. Both were sold to a series of owners: Mary Rowlandson to various “husbands” and Olaudah Equiano through a chain of owners taking him from his home to the West Indies. Both captives suffered from shortages of food: Rowlandson’s situation seem to be the result of the hardships suffered by her captors, but Equiano’s seem to be the result of cruelty as when his captors on the ship threw food overboard rather than share it with the slaves. Rowlandson’s situation and her attitude toward her captors improve as she becomes better acquainted with the women in the Native American tribe and as she realizes that the Indians do not have food to share.

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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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683 Words | 3 Pages

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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485 Words | 2 Pages

This chapter addresses the central argument that African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed. For example, the author underlines that approximately 50,000 African captives were taken to the Dutch Caribbean while 1,600,000 were sent to the French Caribbean. In addition, Painter provides excerpts from the memoirs of ex-slaves, Equiano and Ayuba in which they recount their personal experience as slaves. This is important because the author carefully presents the topic of slaves as not just numbers, but as individual people. In contrast, in my high school’s world history class, I can profoundly recall reading an excerpt from a European man in the early colonialism period which described his experience when he first encountered the African people.

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489 Words | 2 Pages

“The love of a family is life’s greatest blessing,” said Eva Burrows. Jews were known for their traditions, they celebrate Passover Seder, a family gathering to eat a meal of bread and wine. However, these traditions were broken with the tragic Holocaust as many Jews were being separated from their family and being killed, but that did not stop them from the belief if they kept going they would be reunited with family. Furthermore, Elie Wiesel uses Fire and Night in the motif in the memoir Night to convey an underlying message about the need to have your family together in order to be emotionally alive.

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The definition of the word "identity" is "who someone is, the name of a person, the qualities, beliefs, etc., that make a particular person or group different from others". In the novel The Book of Negroes, author Lawrence Hill explores one woman’s fight to keep her identity. Aminata Diallo, the protagonist, sits down as a sixty-seven year old woman in London, England to write down the story of her life in her own voice from her own perspective. She tells of how she is stolen from her home in Central Africa at the tender age of ten years old, thrown onto a ship for three months, and sold into a society where she is not even seen as a human being. Aminata's is a story of abuse, struggle, and courage.

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