Olaudah Equiano Research Paper

The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano, by Olaudah Equiano served as a start to the idea of ending slavery and influencing the Civil Rights movement. One of the major themes presented in this autobiography is the destructiveness of the slave trade. Olaudah Equiano says “But is not the slave trade entirely a war with the heart of man? And surely that which is begun by breaking down the barriers of virtue involves in its continuance destruction to every principle, and buries all sentiments in ruin!” (Equiano). This statement questioned the morality of the people who supported the slave trade. He wanted people to see how much slavery negatively impacted the people involved in this horrible system. The slave trade caused family to separate and

He blamed “greed, lust, pride, and anger to permeate their hearts in spite of their professed faith” (“Equiano). Equiano, message affected many people in the United States and England because even though they claim they were Christians, the fact that they support the slave trade makes them sinner in the eyes of God. 12 Years A Slave, a slave classic by Solomon Northup also expanded on Olaudah Equiano ideas of slavery. An important theme of 12 Years A Slave, was the hardships of slavery on the mindsets of black people. Solomon Northup said that slave owners “would make us hold up our heads, walk briskly back and forth, while customers would feel our hands and arms and bodies” (“McQueen”). Northup was able to create images in the reader's mind of the harsh and brutal conditions of the plantations in Louisiana and show the pain and fear each slave felt physically and mentally. Another theme that Northup conveyed was freedom. When explaining in his slave classic what slavery compared to, he says it “compare to nothing else than the burning agonies of hell”

Dubois was a slave narrative that changed the impact of literature tremendously. One of the major theme mentioned in this slave narrative was the color line. The color line separated the white and black people in the United States. The color line explained in this slave narrative served figuratively and symbolically in the separation of the two groups of people (“DuBois”). With this knowledge, DuBois wanted to express how there would be more hardships for an African American to gain prosperity at the level of a white man. Another theme that was majorly portrayed in The Souls of Black Folk is the idea of double consciousness. One of the quotes said by W.E.B Dubois in his narrative that expressed this theme was “The history of the American Negro is...this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.” He explains the struggles how blacks were faced to live with two identities which were the Negro identity and the American identity (“DuBois”). Americans during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s would not allow an average black person to be considered a Negro nor be considered an American, due to the fact that The United States wouldn't accept it. This work of literature was able to show the struggles in combining the two identities for a black person and why it was important for racism and inequality to come to an end. Similar to The Souls of Black Folk, Johnson autobiography The