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An Account of the Slave Trade
The influence of slave trade
10 notes about the slave trade
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The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Chapter II This document was written as an autobiography by a former slave, Olaudah Equiano. This was the first slave narrative to reveal such detailed effects on one victim of the slave trade and provides an interesting insight into a time where few people survived to give an account of their experiences. Olaudah is a skilled and bright young man who wrote this as a way for the world to be aware of the horrors of the slave trade. This source is a interesting historical account of the Atlantic slave trade Through his writing, Equiano is appealing to the British government in a bid to plead his case for the release of slaves.
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.
During the first half of the 19th century in the United States, there were some African-Americans in the Northern states classified as “Free Blacks.” However, as these free Blacks are not slaves, they were not truly free. This group contained certain human rights such as voting, assembly, religion, school, and so on. Yet, all of previous rights mentioned had major restrictions. As well as limitations, there was most certainly discrimination against non-Whites.
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.
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.
Could there be contrasts and likenesses between two accounts composed by two unique individuals? Confronting various types of afflictions? It is conceivable to discover contrasts and likenesses in two stories relating two various types of occasions? Imprisonment accounts were main stream with pursuers in both America and the European continents. Bondage stories of Americans relate the encounters of whites subjugated by Native Americans and Africans oppressed by early American settlers.
In this article “African Dimensions Of The Stono Rebellion”, John Thornton a professor of history and African American studies, who wrote about the African slaves in the Americas, and specifically the servants in South Carolina during the early eighteenth century. In his writing, the author describes the personality of Africans and their desire to escape from slavery, going through obstacles on their path to freedom. John Thornton is primarily an Africanist, with a specialty in the history of West Central Africa before 1800. His work has also carried him into the study of the African Diaspora, and from there to the history of the Atlantic Basin as a whole, also in the period before the early nineteenth century. Thornton also serves as a consultant
In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.
In Olaudah Equiano’s narrative, he demonstrates an oppressive tone in order to create sympathy for the slaves. For example, when the slaves pack onto the ships, the author describes, “[that] the stench…was so intolerably loathsome…it was dangerous to remain there” (Equiano 45). The diction Equiano uses such as, “stench” and “intolerably loathsome” leads to an increased amount of sympathy for the slaves suffering in the horrendous conditions. Equiano illuminates the dehumanization of the black slaves by describing the atrocities of where they survive. Furthermore, after days without food, instead of providing the slaves with much needed food, the whites simply, “tossed the remaining fish in the sea...although [the slaves] begged and pleaded
Olaudah Equiano was an African American man in England during the late 1700s. His racial color alone automatically ascribed him as a slave during this time period. In 1789, Equiano wrote a memoir about his journey as a slave. At this time, the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was taking place. Therefor slavery was very common, and it was not abnormal for a young child to be kidnapped and forced into slavery (Equiano 3).
The middle passage was a sea journey by slave ships from West Africa to the West Indies and Americas from 1601-1857 (University). The first successful African author, Olaudah Equiano (Donaldson) portrays the vivid details and personalizes these destructive forces of slave trading during the middle passage. In his narrative, Equiano influenced British abolitionists, as well as European slave masters, and convicted them of their wrongdoing. Slave trading during the middle passage was the most destructive thing to happen within the African culture because of the harsh physical and psychological effects, inhumane treatment, and dehumanization of slaves. Equiano’s enslavement lasted from 1756 – 1766.
Olaudah Equiano undergoes multiple traumatic experiences as a slave; based on his experiences he discovers that there are many criticisms against the institution of slavery. From the time Olaudah Equiano was a small child he lived a life as a slave, Equiano along with his sister were kidnapped in Eboe and sold to slave traders. Equiano recounts the horrific experiences he shared with many others, and how he was ultimately stripped of his identity and lost all sense of his past history, culture, and family. Equiano is ultimately writing his stories to share with white European slaveholders, he wanted to show them what he and others like him were facing and why slavery should be abolished. Throughout all of Equianos experiences as a slave he realizes that it is not the practice of slavery that he is critiquing but the institution of it.
PAGE 2 In the Narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass, he uses this text to explain his purpose in “throwing light on the American slave system”, or show it for what it really is, as well as show his position on how he strongly believes slavery is an issue that needs to be addressed and how it differs from those who defended slavery, with experiences from his own life to support his argument. Douglass uses experience from his early days as a young slave to throw light on the aspect of physical abuse. According to his narrative, Douglass states, “Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder.
Introduction: During the 1800’s, Slavery was an immense problem in the United States. Slaves were people who were harshly forced to work against their will and were often deprived of their basic human rights. Forced marriages, child soldiers, and servants were all considered part of enslaved workers. As a consequence to the abolition people found guilty were severely punished by the law.
How big of impact could slavery have done to Africa at least that’s what they said? The slave trade had huge and horrible impact on Africa because it resulted in a tremendous loss of life, Africa has not developed economically as a result of the Slave trade, and Africa still suffers and is unable to provide food and water for its people. Africa had a huge loss of people but to be exact “nearly 90 percent of the Africans in these two major regions came from only four zones in Africa. ”(“The Transatlantic Slave Trade”, para 48) all had to go even against their will 10 million enslaved men, women, and children from West and East Africa to North Africa, the Middle East, and India.