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Essay On Olaudah Equiano

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The Journey to Slavery: Critical Analysis

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a primary document that was written in 1789 about Olaudah Equiano’s experiences as a slave. The document describes his hardships and emotions throughout his journey as a slave. Within the context, there are biases shown and described. Olaudah writes about how his journey makes him feel, which are biases because it’s his opinion. Also, this document is important in the study of history because it shows first hand the experience of slavery and how terrible it was. It helps us learn about the hardships that some slaves had to go through when they didn’t deserve it and it helps people learn that slavery was a dehumanizing act and that no one should ever go through that again.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was written in 1789 about his experiences as a slave. Olaudah Equiano was born in Nigeria on 1945 and was kidnapped at the age 11. 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 …show more content…

Slavery changed Olaudah’s life and lead him to write this narrative. Olaudah had good and bad experiences with slavery, but the bad outweighed the good. He had several opinions about his experiences which lead to bias within his document, cause a skew in the perception of slavery. This document is important to the study of history because it helps people have more insight on the life of a

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Olaudah Equiano Dbq

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The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vass, was first published in 1789. However, his exert from the narrative, “An African captive describes the middle passage” puts slave trade into perspective. This writing accounts for the horrible mistreatment of Equiano and other slaves along with him during his journey across the middle passage. “I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country” [Document Collection 23]. Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped from his homeland in Nigeria and sold to slave traders heading west.

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Differences And Similarities Between Equiano And Mary Rowlandson

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Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano: Comparing Captivity Experiences Americans have been intrigued by captivity novels and works for centuries. It could be the sense of danger and unpredictability that makes them so interesting and popular. Or maybe the idea that captivity was quite possible for readers in previous centuries made captivity narratives popular in Colonial Times. Speaking of Colonial Times, two popular captivity narratives that took place in that era that have many similarities and differences are; A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.

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What Makes Olaudah Equiano Fearful

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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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