Olaudah Equiano Ethos Pathos Logos

The trade of African slaves in the 17th century was perceived as so commonplace that a good deal of the world's population gave it little or no thought. British involvement with slavery became unavoidable at the end of the 17th century, when abolitionist literature gained public attention. The first hand account of life as a slave in Olaudah Equiano's auto-biography was like no other piece of abolitionist literature at the time. The three methods of persuasion in his writing are ethical appealing ethos, logic engaging logos, and his most effective of emotional appealing pathos. Equiano's use of pathos in his auto-biography was effective in persuading the British that slavery is wrong, because of the emotional effects, such as misery, sympathy,

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

By bringing up religion he appealed to the Christian morals that so many British people lived by. For example, when Equiano told of how he learned about God, was taught by Daniel Queen to read the Bible, and of his own baptism he persuaded the readers that his religious beliefs were genuine. The use of God as a pathos method made the British feel guilty for the hellish enslavement of the African's even though they thought they lived by the values of humanity, love, and faith. When Equiano said he would rather have “God's thunder” kill him than to “be sold from lord to lord” the British could not ignore his plea to abolish slavery for the sake of abiding by their own Christian