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Olaudah Equiano Book Report

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Recommended: Transatlantic slave trade

Olaudah Equiano at the tender age of eleven, experienced astonishment and terror as he was isolated from the only safe place he kenned, his habitation Igbo Land (present day Nigeria) by slave traders. His encounters with the slave trade was essentially filled with anguish, vexation, and dolefulness as he was stripped far from his family, particularly his sister, and the people that he bonded with on the ship heading to the various destinations. To describe his slave experience, he composed an extensive book from the perspective of the enslaved. Therefore, his book was instituted as the best artistic work of the abolitionist movement, and recently has turned into history 's most well known portrayal of the slave trade and the Middle Passage. …show more content…

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. (Rediker 111)
However, even though life was good for Equiano, by the time he was eleven years old, slave-trading assaulting in Igbo had already grown extensive in many ways. For security, the adults in the village would take arms if there should arise an occurrence of an assault. For the children that were left home, the adults made special arrangements for them, bringing them together in a single place with instructions that they keep a lookout. (Rediker

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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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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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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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Equiano had many slave owners and two of them had a great influence in his life. Equiano had a horrible experience that he tried to end his life just to escape from being a slave. As days passed his life seemed to be getting easier. As a child Equiano and his sister where taken far away.

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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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Equiano found employment with the Sierra Leone resettlement project, which was constructed to provide a safe place for freed slaves to work and live (Smith, 2013). This is where he formed the “Sons of Africa.” This group aimed to campaign for abolition through public speaking, letter writing, and lobbying parliament (Smith, 2013). Olaudah Equiano also led a delegation to the House of Commons to support William Dolben’s bill to improve conditions of slave ships (Smith, 2013). The story of his life was considered to be a powerful argument against slavery (Smith, 2013).

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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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On the other hand, Equino’s situation and attitude deteriorate as he is moved into ever stranger and more dehumanizing circumstances. Both captives were allowed to earn money: in fact, Equiano eventually earned enough to buy his freedom. Mary, too, was eventually freed when her ransom was

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After those seven years in Virginia, Pascal took Equiano with him when he moved to England. There Equiano served aboard ship during the Seven Years’ War and became a skilled sailor. His owner, Pascal send Equiano to study away in England and he was enrolled at a school in which he learned how to read and how to write. With new information and the power to learn greater, and more put aside many of Equiano’s doubts for his future life. Gave him hope.

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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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Such stories were regularly utilized as promulgation or propaganda: accordingly, Europeans frequently stereotyped Native Americans as merciless and whites started to see subjugation of African-Americans as detestable. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the two narratives which are A Narrative of the Captivity and The interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equianoa. A Narrative of Captivity by Mary Rowlandson and The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano are two generally read imprisonment accounts , which, individually, relate the encounters of a grown-up white lady caught by Indians and an eleven-year-old Black male caught for the American slave market. Looking at these two accounts uncovers fascinating similitudes and contrasts and in addition in the encounters and responses of these two prisoners.

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(first name) Equiano’s journey although seemingly terrible, may have changed his life for the better. His life included slavery and beatings, but these hardships may have better equipped him to speak out against slavery. Equiano was taken from his home as a child and was sold into slavery by a neighboring tribe. Although he was forcibly removed from his home, leaving home may have made his life “better” in the end. If he had not been removed from his home, he would have continued to live a simple life and would never tried to make anything better of himself.

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The struggle for equal education has been an ongoing struggle in American society. On May 17th, 1945, Brown vs. Board of Education demolished the idea of segregation and sparked the African American Civil Rights movement. However, seven years before this court case, another one was being fought. Mendez vs. Westminster was taking place in Orange County, California, advocating for desegregation of Hispanic schools. Two years after the events that took place in Topeka, Kansas, the court ruled that forced segregation was unconstitutional.

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In this paper, I will discuss the similarities, and the differences between “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” and “Journal of the First Voyage to America”. Both stories are trying to persuade the readers to reach their personal goal. However, there are a lot of differences between these two stories: different reader, different purpose,... Starting with, “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”. The author in his writing is talking about the living condition of the slaves on the ship.

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