Olaudah Equiano begins his journal entry by describing the ocean and the slave ship, which were the first things he saw when he was taken onto the slave ship. He was fascinated by them, but he soon realized that it was going to be a horrific journey. Equiano’s first thought was that they were going to kill him, for they had a different skin tone, bore long hair, and spoke a different language. The crew beat Olaudah when he refused to eat. The conditions under the deck where Equiano lived were dreadful: people were packed together so tightly that they were fighting for breathing room.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Olaudah was a very well-articulated man in his autobiography and he had many thoughts expressed as an enslaved man towards the colonies and Philadelphia. Olaudah Equiano has been enslaved for many years after being taken from his homeland of Essaka. He wasn’t always in Philadelphia or in the colonies because of his master’s travels to many diverse places like the West Indies, Pennsylvania, London, England, Georgia, Louis borough Caribbean, and South Carolina. Olaudah was a very vigilant man in seeing the condition and treatment of his fellow brethren slaves in different places around the world. The more he saw the unkind treatment of slaves, the more and more he detests it.
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.
Although there is still forced labor in different parts around the world, there are more ways to help victims, and incarcerate those responsible. Today’s modern slavery consists of sexual exploitation and forced labor in drug cartels. We are lucky enough that we are not auctioned, and traded for goods we can get today at a grocery store. Olaudah’s journey to the New World, is one of the many stories that we have available to us today through the click of a button. Slavery in the British colonies could have still been a possibly if it weren’t for Olaudah
Contact for Africans that were a part of the slave trade was an almost entirely negative experience. Africans view of their captors were heavily negative due to their poor treatment. The experiences of Olaudah Equiano give us a unique window into the lives of African slaves during the period of first European contact. Equiano received detestable treatment, and his autobiographical writings demonstrate firsthand just how poorly freshly enslaved Africans were treated. It’s particularly telling that one of the first lines he writes is “I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me.
Olaudah Equiano was a young boy sucked into the tornado of the African slave trade during the Mid 1700's who lived to tell his story to millions. His narrative tells the story of his personal account as a slave that was written for the European society during the peak of the movement to help abolish slavery between the British colonies address to the superior white men at the time. Olaudah Equiano was captured by African slave traders and stolen from his home in West Africa. He was taken to many different places such as Barbados, colonial Virginia, and ended in the hands of a British Naval officer. After spending 20 years as a slave, he bought his freedom and wrote his stories.
The most shocking thing is that even though going through what he went through, he himself once had slaves of his own. This is was the story of Equiano impacted me the most. One of the descriptive details that Equiano gives is when he arrives at the ship and sees people's faces and that they are chained together, “and saw a large furnace of copper boiling and a multitude of black people of every description chained together.” Equiano is already terrified that he was kidnapped and separated from his sister. Now seeing that the people that are on the ship look like him are being treated badly, might have made him even more terrified.
Olaudah Equiano was one of the most famous black men in the history of slavery who was lucky enough to purchase his freedom by himself. Equiano was highly popular for his autobiography named The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African. This is an interesting autobiographywhich was published in 1789 and it emphasized various aspects of slavery throughout the entire book. In The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano uses poetic diction and tone ( sadistic) to illustrate his perspective as a slave by portraying the cruality and brutality of slavery. Equiano was very disappointed with his master’s betrayal.
The autobiography primarily taken place in Great Britain known as, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself authored by Olaudah Equiano. This narrative characterized as a slavery narrative, as he discloses his journey as an African American reconstructing from a life of slavery to freedom. Throughout history, most African Americans endure barbarous punishment from white masters. Equiano was deprived from his life and thrown into slavery, during this time it was a prevailing condition for many. He hastily discovered he must conduct everything the masters commanded of him to survive or for outcome of freedom.
Both stories begin with shocking horrors, although much of Equiano’s narrative was based on these horrific scenes. Equiano’s survival of his involuntary journey to America, being enslaved as a child, and witnessing torture in Virginia, should be of aid towards the disapproval of the brutality of slavery. After buying his own freedom, Equiano became a front-runner in the abolitionist movement representing those who stood against slavery. Now in the 21st century we still fight for the freedom and self-respect we find in Equiano’s narrative. Rowlandson’s and Equiano’s narratives each represent a different characteristic of what it means to be part of the American nation.
